Georgian patriarch asks Saakashvili to stop hunger strike
Patriarch’’s secretary Mikael Botkoveli visited ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili in prison earlier today.
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Georgian Patriarch Ilia II has requested the country’s third president Mikheil Saakashvili, who is currently serving a prison term in Rustavi Prison No.12, to suspend hunger strike ‘which is not a Christian way of behaviour.’
The secretary of Ilia II, Mikael Botkoveli, visited Saakashvili in prison earlier today and conveyed to him the patriarch’s ‘blessing and the request on behalf of the church to stop the hunger strike.’
Saakashvili went on hunger strike on October 1, shortly after he was detained in the Sanzona neighbourhood of Tbilisi.
His lawyer says that the ex-president still lacks a TV set and a mattress.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) MP Mikheil Sarjveladze says that if Saakashvili’s health worsens, it will not be the fault of the GD.
My letter from prison
— Mikheil Saakashvili (@SaakashviliM) October 2, 2021
My dear associates and my Georgian community.
When I left Kyiv and came here, I knew that I would most likely be arrested, with fabricated, false verdicts which were issued by order of Putin. No country in the world except Russia recognizes this sentence... pic.twitter.com/ffA8VPvhz6
Prisoners are never released because they are on hunger strike,” Sarjveladze said, adding that doctors will treat Saakashvili in the case of any health complications.
Saakashvili, now a citizen of Ukraine who chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, was arrested in a flat in Tbilisi on October 1, ahead of the October 2 municipal elections.
Saakashvili claims that he ‘put his life at risk’ to help his UNM party win the municipal elections and remove the Georgian Dream government from power via snap parliamentary elections.
He was convicted in 2018 in Georgia in absentia for abuse of authority and has also been charged with four other crimes, including ‘illegally crossing the border’ from Ukraine to Georgia.
'Content of video was unexpected, form was completely unacceptable'
Former first lady of Georgia Sandra Roelofs wrote on Facebook that the content of the video published by Ukrainian MP Liza Yasko, in which she and ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili announced the creation of a 'new family', was unexpected for her and the form was 'completely unacceptable'.
Georgian former President Mikheil Saakashvili allegedly entered Georgia’s Black Sea port city of Poti via Ukrainian private company UkrFerry’s boat Vilnius ‘hidden in a truck,’ the Georgian Public Broadcaster’s (GPB) weekly analytical program New Week reports. The GPB says Saakashvili set foot in Georgia on September 29 at nine p.m. via boat which departed from the trading port of Chernomorsk in the Odessa region.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says that the ‘most credible’ account of why ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili returned to Georgia after eight years in political exile was his ‘wish to overthrow the Georgian Dream government.’ However, the ‘operation was as poorly planned as Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) had run the country while in power.’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced at a briefing in Truskavets, Ukraine today that he will work to bring Ukrainian citizen and former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, currently detained in Georgia, back to Ukraine using "various means".
Police have arrested several supporters of recently detained former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in front of Rustavi prison earlier today as a result of a clash between protesters and law enforcers. The largest opposition United National Movement (UNM) party supporter Zviad Kuprava has been arrested along with several other protesters who aimed to make inscriptions 'Freedom to Misha' on the walls of the prison.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says that the country’s recently detained ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili is staging a show with his hunger strike to spark tension ahead of municipal election runoffs on October 30.
Georgian Patriarch Ilia II, who is the most trusted figure in the country according to public polls, has for the second time requested the country’s former president, Mikheil Saakashvili, to suspend his hunger strike.