Saakashvili ready to take medicine, but says he will continue hunger strike
The third president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, left the country in 2013, shortly after the Georgian Dream coalition defeated his United National Movement party in the 2012 parliamentary elections. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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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.
Saakashvili, who returned to Georgia after eight years in political exile to help his United National Movement (UNM) retake office, claims all charges against him are politically motivated and that he is a “personal prisoner of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the pro-Russian Georgian Dream government."
I returned to help the Georgian people climb out of the mess which the Georgian Dream government has made over the years. I am ready to die for this goal,” Saakashvili said.
A medical council checked Saakashvili’s health in prison yesterday.
Day 19 of a hunger strike. #FreeSaakashvili
— Mikheil Saakashvili (@SaakashviliM) October 19, 2021
As one of the doctors told journalists, Saakashvili’s health condition is satisfactory, but it may worsen at any moment and that the council recommends his hospitalization.
Justice Minister Rati Bregadze says they are ready to fulfill the recommendations of the medical council if Saakashvili accepts treatment, as, by law, Saakashvili cannot be brought to hospital against his will.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has once again accused Saakashvili ‘of staging a show’ with his hunger strike.
Statement of MEPs on rule of law situation in Georgia. Georgia’s European future is at stake. The Government and the ruling party the Georgian Dream bear primary responsibility for rule of law situation and its resolution. https://t.co/6dGSHEupfi
— Andrius Kubilius (@KubiliusA) October 19, 2021
The former president, who is a citizen of Ukraine and chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, wishes to be released from prison before municipal election run-offs on October 30.
Saakashvili was convicted in Georgia in absentia in 2018, and was sentenced to six years in prison for abuse of authority.
He has also been charged with four other cases related to illegal seizure of property, embezzlement, illegal rally dispersal and illegally crossing the border.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has denounced the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party, saying ‘the evil force, which is behind multiple crimes, must end as an organisation and as a party.’ He stated that former president Mikheil Saakashvili will have to serve his six-year term and accused him once again of ‘misleading and cheating the public.’
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.
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.
Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili has been detained today, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has announced. "Our law enforcement agencies had prior information about his (Saakashvili’s) movement from Ukraine to Georgia and the process was under the control” Garibashvili stated.
The third president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who was detained in Tbilisi on October 1, has been officially charged for the illegal crossing of the state border earlier today. Six other criminal charges are filed against 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.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has criticised MEP Raphael Glucksmann for his statements that the ‘judiciary is biased’ in Georgia, saying that Glucksmann is a ‘close friend of Georgia’s currently detained former president Mikheil Saakashvili.’
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.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says the country’s currently arrested former president, Mikheil Saakashvili, ‘is trying to imitate Adolf Hitler, but he is a fake Hitler.’
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.’
Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Lyudmyla Denisova, is currently visiting former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili in Rustavi Prison No.12. Denisova says that she's come to Georgia to find out whether Saakashvili’s human rights are being protected.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says that former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili will neither be released early from prison, nor will he be transferred to Ukraine. "This will never take place. If the government allows any of these scenarios to happen, it will be disrespectful to the rule of law,” Garibashvili says. Saakashvili, who is a citizen of Ukraine and currently chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reform Council, was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1, a day before the Georgian municipal elections.
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.