Saakashvili may be allowed to attend trials concerning him
Justice Minister Rati Bregadze says that former president Mikheil Saakashvili, who was convicted in Georgia in absentia in 2018 for abuse of power, will not be released from prison. Photo: Justice Ministry press office.
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Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze says that former president Mikheil Saakashvili may be brought to court to attend trial hearings in his own cases, as Saakashvili has called off his 50-day hunger strike and is now receiving medical care in Gori military hospital.
Bregadze has told Imedi TV that Saakashvili was refused attendance at three trial hearings in cases concerning him because of ‘security threats and taking Saakshvili’s health while on hunger strike into account.’
If the risks are removed, Saakashvili will be able to attend the hearings,” Bregadze said.
In previous comments, government officials stated that opposition activists had plans to cause unrest in the streets during the transportation of the former president to the court.
Bregadze said that the opposition’s demands regarding the release of Saakashvili from prison have ‘no legal grounds,’ while the Georgian Dream government ‘always acts in accordance with the law.’
Saakashvili says that he is a political prisoner. Opposition has been demanding his release since the day of his arrest in Tbilisi. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
Saakashvili, who is now a citizen of Ukraine, was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1 after eight years in political exile.
He says he returned to remove the Georgian Dream from power, accusing the current government of changing the country’s pro-western course.
The former president was transferred to Gori military hospital last week, on his 50th day of a hunger strike.
Saakashvili was convicted in Georgia in absentia in 2018 for abuse of power and was sentenced to six years in prison.
He has also been charged with five other offenses, including illegal seizure of property, illegal rally dispersal, embezzlement, abuse of power and illegally crossing the border.
Trial hearings have been held in three cases so far – illegal rally dispersal, illegally crossing the border, and embezzlement of state funds.
Georgian Minister of Culture and former Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani says that if there is a need, former president Mikheil Saakashvili will be brought to a civil clinic from a prison hospital.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili says that the third president Mikheil Saakashvili is serving his term in a Georgian prison ‘based on the rule of law.’ However, she noted that the former president is not an ordinary prisoner and that his imprisonment and hunger strike is ‘under close observation’ by the international community.
Former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili has refused online participation in a trial hearing today which concerns his illegal crossing from Ukraine to Georgia at the end of September 2021, Tbilisi City Court judge David Kurtradze said earlier today.
Former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili has again not been allowed by the Special Penitentiary Service of Georgia to attend a trial in Tbilisi City Court today about an embezzlement case in which he is implicated.
Former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who is now receiving medical care in Gori military hospital after a 50-day hunger strike, claims that opposition MPs have been banned from seeing him for more than a week.
Lawyers of former president Mikheil Saakashvili have called on the government to ensure Saakashvili’s presence at a trial hearing in a case concerning him on Monday despite the opposition’s plans to hold a rally at Tbilisi City Court.