Lawyer of imprisoned former President: Saakashvili leaving United National Movement opposition party, Georgian politics
Saakashvili’s lawyer also said Georgia had “no experience” in curing former President's conditions and stressed “all the attention” needed to be shifted on his health, “without politics”. Photo: Interpressnews.ge.
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Georgia's imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili is leaving the United National Movement opposition party and Georgian politics as “his agenda has changed” and taking care of own health has become his main task, lawyer Valeri Gelbakhiani announced on Saturday.
Gelbakhiani said Saakashvili was no longer interested in politics and that he had “served all responsibility” to the party and the country, noting he had “no complaint” against anyone in his party.
Georgian Public Broadcaster cited Gelbakhiani as saying Saakashvili had “all the conditions” to continue his political career in Ukraine and that there had not been “circumstances” to force him to come back to Georgia, adding he wanted to show the country he was “no coward” and would not run away from prison conditions.
Saakashvili’s lawyer also said Georgia had “no experience” in curing former President's conditions and stressed “all the attention” needed to be shifted on his health, “without politics”.
Georgia’s Justice Ministry on Wednesday called on the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili to accept health services offered to him in detention “without preconditions,” following a list of demands released by the politician as terms for accepting an offer of his transfer to a civilian clinic for medical checks.
Police arrested 25 supporters of the imprisoned former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili from the United National Movement opposition party for “administrative violations” during a rally in western Georgia’s coastal city of Batumi late on Friday, the Interior Ministry said.
Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria on Wednesday said she was ready to discuss the matter of the health condition of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili with “competent medical representatives” of the Justice Ministry and Penitentiary Service, and called on the state institutions to avoid “delaying” a review of the matter.
Georgian Minister of Justice Rati Bregadze on Monday said the country’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili was receiving “proper treatment” in prison, with “all necessary conditions” created by authorities both for ensuring adequate diet and visitor access to the politician.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday welcomed reports of former President Mikheil Saakashvili planning to retire from political life, saying Saakashvili’s presence in domestic politics was “unlawful” as the former President held Ukrainian citizenship and chaired the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council before being arrested in the Georgian capital last year.
Medical professionals and not politicians or lawyers should discuss the matter of health of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili, ruling Georgian Dream party MP and former Health Minister David Sergeenko said on Friday in comments on recent statements by Saakashvili’s lawyers about the former President's plans to withdraw from politics due to poor health.
Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze said on Monday the Government may invite independent medical experts to check the health of the jailed former President Mikheil Saakashvili, in a bid to “remove all questions” around the matter amid claims by Saakashvili’s attorneys and family that the former President is in “urgent need” of “proper treatment” abroad.
Ruling Georgian Dream party MP Mamuka Mdinaradze on Tuesday said “no-one can be surprised” that the country’s jailed former President Mikheil Saakashvili “s trying to escape justice”, in response to recent statements by Saakashvili’s lawyers on the politician’s “seriously deteriorated health” that allegedly requires treatment abroad.
Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze on Thursday said the Government had done “everything” to protect the right to health of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili.
The trial of the jailed Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili in the case of illegal crossing of the state border, set to have been held on Tuesday at the Vivamed clinic, was postponed, the prosecutor of the mentioned case Levan Vepkhvadze said, explaining Saakashvili had refused to testify and said he had “nothing to discuss” with the court.
Kakha Kaladze, the mayor of Tbilisi and the secretary general of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said the question of allowing a transfer of the imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili abroad due to his health condition was “not up to the ruling party”.
Mikheil Saakashvili, the imprisoned former president of Georgia, on Monday dismissed claims by his lawyer Valeri Gelbakhiani over his alleged poisoning while in custody, stating he had “never” told any of his lawyers he had suspected poisoning had triggered his current “complicated health”.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday said the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili and his entourage “must come to terms with the reality” that the former official will “have to serve his sentence”, in comments on the ongoing controversies related to the former official’s health.
Georgia’s imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili is only taking a “quarter to a third” of his necessary daily calorie intake in contradiction to efforts of professionals at the civilian clinic where he is undergoing treatment, doctors of the clinic said on Wednesday.