Saakashvili demands Georgian gov’t allow him to speak in court to ‘tell the truth’
Former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili returned to Georgia ahead of October 2 municipal elections. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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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.
Saakashvili says in a Facebook post released earlier today that he will tell the truth ‘about everything’ in the court.
Instead of sharing my smiling videos from various resorts, take me to ‘your court.’ But it is likely you (the Georgian Dream government) are afraid of the truth most of all,” Saakashvili said.
Saakashvili has been on hunger strike since the day of his detention and has recently agreed to take medication to ‘maintain [his] strength.’
He is ready to be taken to hospital, but not to a prison hospital as was offered by government officials.
Saakashvili says that he returned to Georgia ‘to help the Georgian people end the governance of the pro-Russian Georgian Dream.’
He stated that he is a ‘personal prisoner’ of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the founder of the Georgian Dream Bidzina Ivanishvili.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.’
The opposition United National Movement (UNM) party is holding a rally in the Black Sea town of Batumi. Local leader of the party Mirdat Kamadadze said the ruling Georgian Dream party is in minority in Batumi City Council (Sakrebulo).
Lawyers of ex. president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili demand he be treated in a civil hospital and not in prison as his condition is allegedly deteriorating. Saakashvili’s lawyer, Nika Gvaramia, says Saakashvili may be killed during instigated unrest in the prison hospital, which is why it is unacceptable to treat him there.
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.’
The United National Movement (UNM) opposition party has called on the international community and NGOs to ‘take all measures’ to protect former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been on hunger strike for 26 days. The UNM chairman Nika Melia said yesterday that Saakashvili needs to be brought to a multi-profile civil clinic and not to a prison hospital as the Georgian Dream government officials had offered.
Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili’s Ukrainian lawyer Evgen Grushovets claims he was denied entry to Georgia. The lawyer says that he was stopped at Tbilisi International Airport and sent back to Ukraine without any explanation.
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.
Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Lyudmyla Denisova, has said that former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili’s rights have been breached on several grounds. After visiting Saakashvili in Rustavi Prison No.12 earlier today, Denisova reported that Saakashvili’s rights have been violated on procedural, medical, and religious grounds.
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.
Georgia's State Security Service has claimed it has identified plans for "assassination" of an opposition figure and blocking of government institutions by organisers of large rallies expected on Saturday in support of the imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili.
Minister of Justice of Georgia, Rati Bregadze, has alleged the imprisoned former president of the country, Mikheil Saakashvili, eats diet outside "medical designation" in contradiction to his hunger strike, and in contrast to comments by the private physician of the politician.
Georgia's justice minister Rati Bregadze has revealed the nearest hearings of a case against Mikheil Saakashvili could take place at the penitentiary facility in the city of Rustavi where the politician is located, as the United National Movement-led rallies are set to launch outside the prison and in capital Tbilisi on Saturday.