Health minister: medical council will assess ex. pres. Saakashvili’s health today
Saakashvili, who is serving time in Rustavi penitentiary establishment No.12, has been on a hunger strike since his arrest on October 1. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge
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Health Minister Ekaterine Tikaradze says that a medical council will be held today to assess the health of ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili who is currently serving time in prison.
Tikaradze explained that she is not personally involved in the discussion regarding the ex-president’s health, and the medical council is being convened on the request of Saakashvili's personal doctor Nikoloz Kipshidze.
Kipshidze claims that the ex-president’s health condition ‘has significantly worsened in prison due to hunger strike.’
He stated last week that Saakashvili has thalassaemia, an inherited blood disorder in which the body makes an abnormal form of haemoglobin, and that hunger is never allowed for such patients.
Saakashvili, who is serving time in Rustavi penitentiary establishment No.12, has been on a hunger strike since his arrest on October 1.
Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria, who has been monitoring Saakashvili’s health and living conditions in prison, has found ‘no violations of his rights’ so far.
The former president of Georgia, who is currently a citizen of Ukraine, was charged with the abuse of authority in absentia back in 2018 and sentenced to six years in prison.
Furthermore, Saakashvili has been charged with four additional cases related to illegal takeover of property, embezzlement, illegal rally dispersal and illegally crossing of the border.
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.
The United Nations Movement (UNM) plans to hold ‘large rallies’ in all large cities in Georgia, during which demonstrators will demand the release of former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili from prison, UNM member Levan Bezhashvili said earlier today.
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.
Overall six criminal charges are filed against recently arrested Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili who has been convicted to six years of imprisonment in two cases while four other criminal cases are still being heard in Tbilisi City Court.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party MP Shalva Papuashvili has stated earlier today that those calling for the release of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili ‘do not respect the rule of law’, in response to dozens of international officials’ joint letter.
Former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been on hunger strike since his arrest in Tbilisi on October 1, says that he is ready to take medicines to ‘maintain the strength to think and act’, but vows that he will not suspend his hunger strike.
Georgian former president Mikheil Saakashvili, who was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1 after eight years in political exile, has demanded the Georgian Dream (GD) government take him to court, where he will provide ‘all true information’ about him both for the international community and the Georgian people.
Health minister Ekaterine Tikaradze has said that conditions in the hospital of prison No.18, where former president Mikheil Saakashvili may be brought, will be rechecked. Tikaradze explains that if the prison clinic does not meet Saakashvili’s needs, then other inmates might also ‘be at risk.’