Several protesters detained at ex-president Saakashvili’s support rally
People have been gathering in front of the penitentiary institution in Rustavi for the last several days where currently Saaakshvili serves his sentence and have been demanding his release. Photo: Mzia Saganelidze/RFE/RL.
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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.
Police stated that Kuprava was arrested because he did not obey the request of the law enforcers regarding making inscriptions on the walls, noting that ‘the Administrative Code prohibits the making of inscriptions on buildings.’
One of the supporters of the UNM became incapacitated during the clash therefore an ambulance was called to the spot.
Supporters of ex-president Saakashvili said that they came ‘to encourage Mikheil Saakashvili’ and noted that he is ‘a personal prisoner’ of the ruling Georgian Dream party’s founder Bidzina Ivanishvili.
People have been gathering in front of the penitentiary institution in Rustavi for the last several days where currently Saaakshvili serves his sentence and have been demanding his release.
Saakashvili claims that currently, he is on a hunger strike considering himself a political prisoner and occasionally sends letters to his supporters.
He was arrested on October 1 soon after he announced his return to the country via Facebook.
Mikheil Saakashvili faces several criminal charges and is convicted to six years of imprisonment in two cases: the case of physical attack on opposition MP Valeri Gelashvili who was severely injured and assaulted by armed and masked men in Tbilisi in 2005 and the murder case of Sandro Girgvliani in 2006.
Saakashvili who served as the country’s third president from 2004 to 2013 was found guilty of the abuse of power in both cases. power in both cases.
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.’
Opposition United National Movement (UNM) MP Levan Khabeishvili has announced a ‘large-scale’ demonstration to release recently detained Georgian former president Mikheil Saakashvili and called on the public to join. "We must start preparing for a large rally, the whole of Georgia must stand on its feet...Let's start organising from here and interacting with each other,” says Khabeishvili in his Facebook post.
The United National Movement (UNM) opposition party and their supporters are now rallying at Rustavi No.12 prison to express support for the currently detained third president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili.
Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria has visited the recently detained ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili in the prison of Rustavi and has announced that Saakashvili considers himself a political prisoner and starts a hunger strike. Lomjaria also stated that as a citizen of Ukraine Saakashvili requests a meeting with the Ukrainian consul.
Ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who was detained in Tbilisi on October 1, has appealed to the international community, hoping they will not allow his ‘extrajudicial captivity case unnoticed’. In an open letter posted on Facebook, Saakashvili says his arrest was based on two court sentences ‘which no one in the world recognises’ and on an arrest warrant on two pending cases.
Police have arrested two protesters at a rally in support of jailed former President Mikheil Saakashvili in front of the government administration building earlier today. Demonstrators demanding the release of Saakashvili attempted to draw graffiti reading 'Freedom to Misha' in front of the building, which resulted in a clash between protesters and officers.