Ruling party MP: gov’t has no plans to send Saakashvili abroad for rehabilitation
Former president Mikheil Saakashvili called off his 50-day hunger strike on November 20.Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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Georgian Dream party MP Guram Macharashvili says the government has no plans to send former president Mikheil Saakashvili ‘to a foreign resort’ to receive treatment weeks after his 50-day hunger strike.
Macharashvili’s statement is in response to statements by Saakashvili’s personal doctor Nikoloz Kipshidze and members of the Empathy NGO that the former president requires ‘proper treatment abroad' owing to continued ill health.
Macharashvili says that like other inmates, Saakashvili’s rights are ‘fully protected and he is receiving the medical care he needs’ in Gori military hospital.
Kipshidze, however, says that Saakashvili feels weak, has walking and gastroenterological problems and anemia.
The treatment he is receiving seems not to be effective,” Kipshidze said on the weekend, after visiting the former president in the military hospital.
A medical council invited by Georgian Public Advocate Nino Lomjaria also checked Saakashvili’s health on the weekend and its conclusion will be available in the near future.
Lomjaria says that currently she has ‘no evidence’ that Saakashvili requires treatment abroad. However, she said that she will make a more complete statement on the topic after the medical council presents its conclusion.
Saakashvili was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1 after eight years in political exile.
He claims he returned to support the opposition in removing the Georgian Dream leadership from power.
Saakashvili, who is a citizen of Ukraine and holds an official post there, was convicted in absentia in Georgia in 2018 and was sentenced to six years in prison for abuse of power.
He has also been charged with five other offences.
Former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who was brought to Tbilisi City Court earlier today to attend a trial hearing concerning him on a rally dispersal back in 2007, says that he ‘committed no crimes,’ and that ‘it is the shame’ of the country that the ‘creator of the modern Georgian state is imprisoned.’
The former president Mikheil Saakashvili has accepted the Georgian government’s offer to be transferred to Gori military hospital and is ready to stop the 50-day hunger strike after the admittance to the clinic, ex-president’s lawyer Nika Gvaramia announces.
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 Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who reportedly has been on hunger strike for 39 days, has been transferred to Gldani No.18 prison hospital ‘to prevent deterioration in his health due to increased risks,' the Georgian Special Penitentiary Service reports.
Head of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party Irakli Kobakhidze says that ‘national reconciliation,’ making peace between the current and former leaderships of Georgia, is possible if the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party ‘admits to the grave crimes they committed while in office and then leaves politics.’
A group of medical experts invited by Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria has examined imprisoned former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili's health, refuting allegations that Saakashvili is being abused with pharmaceuticals.