Special Penitentiary Service: ‘Imprisoned ex-President Saakashvili will temporarily stay in Gori Military Hospital‘
Mikheil Saakashvili, who is currently a citizen of Ukraine, fled Georgia in 2013, a year after the UNM lost the parliamentary elections to the Georgian Dream. In 2018, a Georgian court convicted him in absentia on two counts of abuse of power and sentenced him to six years in prison. He is now facing five additional charges, including illegal seizure of property, embezzlement, illegal rally dispersal, and illegal border crossing. Photo: RFE/RL.
Tweet 
Share
The Special Penitentiary Service of Georgia stated earlier today that former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili will temporarily stay in Gori Military Hospital.
The penitentiary service noted that doctors decided to discharge Saakashvili from the hospital on December 27, but he did not obey the lawful request of the Special Penitentiary Service to leave the hospital and be transferred to Rustavi No. 12 prison.
Minister of Justice Rati Bregadze said that following a nervous breakdown, Saakashvili was observed with blood pressure fluctuation. Therefore, the penitentiary service postponed Saakashvili’s transfer to Rustavi No. 12 prison.
Mikheil Saakashvili was transferred to Gori Military Hospital for treatment on November 19. He received all necessary medical assistance. As the treatment has been completed, a decision was made to discharge him from the hospital. He did not obey the legal request of the Special Penitentiary Service," Bregadze said.
Bregadze also said that if Saakashvili goes on hunger strike again after being transferred to Rustavi prison and needs medical treatment, he will be brought to Gldani prison No. 18 hospital. He noted that ‘this is the standard that exists in the penitentiary system, it applies to all prisoners and Saakashvili is no exception’.
- Saakashvili’s doctor: ex-president has post-traumatic stress disorder
- What criminal charges are filed against recently arrested ex-president Saakashvili?
Saakashvili, who is currently a citizen of Ukraine, fled Georgia in 2013, a year after the UNM lost the parliamentary elections to the Georgian Dream. In 2018, a Georgian court convicted him in absentia on two counts of abuse of power and sentenced him to six years in prison.
He is now facing five additional charges, including illegal seizure of property, embezzlement, illegal rally dispersal, and illegal border crossing.
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.
Georgian former President Mikheil Saakashvili allegedly entered Georgia’s Black Sea port city of Poti via Ukrainian private company UkrFerry’s boat Vilnius ‘hidden in a truck,’ the Georgian Public Broadcaster’s (GPB) weekly analytical program New Week reports. The GPB says Saakashvili set foot in Georgia on September 29 at nine p.m. via boat which departed from the trading port of Chernomorsk in the Odessa region.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says that the ‘most credible’ account of why ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili returned to Georgia after eight years in political exile was his ‘wish to overthrow the Georgian Dream government.’ However, the ‘operation was as poorly planned as Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) had run the country while in power.’
Georgia’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office has charged father and son who transported ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili to Georgia’s western region of Samegrelo after he illegally crossed into Georgia several days ago.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called on the Georgian government ‘to treat ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili with respect,’ calling a recent attempt on December 27 to transfer him from Gori Military Hospital to Rustavi No. 12 prison ‘improper.'
Former president Mikheil Saakashvili, who was undergoing treatment in Gori Military Hospital following his 50-hunger-strike since the day of his arrest in Tbilisi on October 1, has been transferred from the hospital back to Rustavi No. 12 prison earlier today, the ex-president’s lawyer Nika Gvaramia reported.
Georgian Dream party MP Gia Volski says the law has not been violated by the transfer of former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili to Rustavi No. 12 prison, noting that after recovery he had to be brought back to jail.
The Special Penitentiary Service of Georgia on Wednesday rejected media reports on the possible poisoning or intoxication of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili in detention as “targeted" and "defamatory”.