Opposition slams president for her ‘strong refusal’ to pardon Saakashvili
President Salome Zurabishvili stated yesterday that she will never pardon former president Mikheil Saakashvili. Photo: president’’s press office.
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Several opposition parties and members have criticized Georgian president Salome Zurabishvili for a recent statement that she will never pardon ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili.
Zurabishvili said yesterday that Saakashvili, who was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1 after eight years in political exile, ‘is neither a political prisoner, nor a victim of injustice,’ noting that the former president returned to Georgia to incite unrest.
A member of Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) opposition party, Zaal Udumashvili, says that Zurabishvili took the presidential post with the support of the ruling party and is now ‘fulfilling the demands of the party.’
I did not expect anything else from the president who was ‘appointed’ by the ruling party,” Udumashvili said.
Opposition MP and former member of UNM, Salome Samadashvili, says that by her refusal to pardon Saakashvili, Zurabishvili is taking responsibility for a ‘severe political crisis’ which ‘will begin in the country due to fabricated elections and the arrest of the former president.’
Lelo opposition party MP, Anna Natsvlishvili, stated that Zurabishvili was ‘even afraid to clearly say’ that Saakashvili should be transferred to a civil clinic due to complicated health.
Saakashvili, who is a citizen of Ukraine and chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, says he returned to Georgia to help his UNM party remove Georgian Dream from power.
He has been on hunger strike since his arrest in Tbilisi on October 1.
The Ministry of Justice has offered Saakashvili medical care in a prison clinic, which he declined.
The government officials say that Saakashvili is ‘staging a show’ with his hunger strike, and has plans to cause unrest if he is brought to a civil clinic.
The former president was convicted in Georgia in absentia back in 2018 for abuse of authority and was sentenced to six years in prison.
He has also been charged with several other offences.
Droa opposition party leader, Elene Khoshtaria, has gone on hunger strike in the parliament building of Georgia, demanding the transfer of former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvil, to a civil clinic for treatment.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has reiterated her previous claims that she will not pardon arrested ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili. She said Saakashvili, who was arrested a day before the October 2 municipal elections in Tbilisi ‘does not satisfy any criteria of a political prisoner or of a victim of innocence’.
Former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili released a letter from Rustavi Prison No. 12 earlier today, urging the public to join anti-government rallies announced by the opposition. Saakashvili claims the opposition won the local self-government elections in all cities of Georgia, and asks the citizens of Georgia to join the street rallies, demanding the annulment of election results and his release from prison.
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.
Former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who is serving a prison term in Rustavi Prison No.12, has said that ‘only the Georgian people’ can release him from prison. Saakashvili, who was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1 after returning from eight years in political exile, considers himself a ‘political prisoner’ and has reportedly been on a hunger strike for 35 days.
The Georgian opposition led by the United National Movement (UNM) is holding rallies in protest of the results of October 30 municipal election run-offs in Batumi and Rustavi. Claiming that the elections have been ‘stolen’ by the ruling Georgian Dream party, UNM leader Nika Melia, who ran for Tbilisi mayor, said in Batumi that the opposition will hold permanent rallies until ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s release.