Parliament Vice Speaker: imprisoned former President’s entourage interested in facilitating his escape from justice
Talakvadze was commenting on footage of Saakashvili, released on social media on Wednesday by the Special Penitentiary Service of Georgia, that showed his condition during different periods spent by the former official at the Vivamedi civilian clinic in Tbilisi. Photo: Parliament of Georgia
Tweet 
Share
Archil Talakvadze, the Georgian Parliament's Vice Speaker, on Thursday said the entourage of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili “do not care about his health”, alleging their interest in facilitating his escape from justice through a bypassing of the law.
Talakvadze was commenting on footage of Saakashvili, released on social media on Wednesday by the Special Penitentiary Service of Georgia, that showed his condition during different periods spent by the former official at the Vivamedi civilian clinic in Tbilisi.
There is high public interest [in the subject of Saakashvili’s health in detention], and the footage once again confirmed what many people had suspected before - that the patient does not cooperate with doctors [and] he is also not feeding properly. The criticism of treatment results, criticism of doctors, discrediting of the penitentiary healthcare system are groundless in this case”, the Parliament official said.
Talakvadze also stressed the interest of Saakashvili's political team to use his imprisonment and health-related issues to “somehow destabilise” the situation in the country and bring a “dissonance” to the process of European integration of Georgia.
The reality is that the Government has expressed its full readiness to provide Mikheil Saakashvili with complete medical services [and] to invite any doctor that his family and the defence consider necessary for his health interests - although we have not yet received an answer to this, which proves that in fact these people and Saakashvili's entourage do not care about his health issues, but have other interests,” he alleged.
“This is a direct political motivation and a desire to facilitate his escape from justice by bypassing the law”, the Parliament official concluded.
Rati Bregadze, the Georgian Justice Minister, on Wedneasday said by publishing the footage, the Service had a “legitimate goal to properly inform the public that no one is tortured in Georgia, [and] [...] show that the state is trying its best to ensure the protection of human rights”.
- Penitentiary service releases footage of ex-pres. Saakashvili’s condition in Vivamedi clinic [VIDEO]
Saakashvili has been receiving treatment at the Vivamedi clinic since May 12, after he was moved from the Gori Military Hospital - where he was transferred in late November from the hospital of the Gldani No.18 prison. The latter, in turn, served as his detention location after his move from the Rustavi No.12 prison, the initial detention venue, in early November 2021.
The third President, currently a citizen of Ukraine, was arrested in Tbilisi in October 2021 on his clandestine return to Georgia ahead of municipal elections. He has been serving a six-year term for abuse of power in two separate cases stemming back to his time in office, while three other cases are pending.
The Special Penitentiary Service of Georgia on Wednesday posted footage on social media of the imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili, which shows his condition in different periods at the Vivamedi civilian clinic.
Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday said attempts of “politicised interference” with Georgian justice were “unacceptable”, in his remarks on debates held on Monday in the European Parliament about latest developments around the health and sentence of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday said it was “important” that the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili cooperated with the medical staff and the domestic penitentiary system, in his remarks over the latest developments around the former official’s health and sentence.
While the Georgian public should be united to present the country "in the best possible way" for the ongoing European integration, it is “unacceptable” that the “radical wing” of the domestic opposition is “purposefully spreading disinformation" on human rights violations and torture in the country, Justice Minister Rati Bregadze said on Tuesday in comments on the ongoing controversy around the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Friday responded to a call by the Ukrainian foreign office for Georgian authorities to accept the request for delaying the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s sentence for ensuring his medical treatment abroad by saying the former official had committed crimes in Georgia that necessitated his serving of the sentence in the country.
Roman Gotsiridze, a MP for the opposition United National Movement party, on Friday said it would “not be right” for party members to leave their Parliamentary mandates in protest over the latest developments around the health and sentence of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Mikheil Sarjveladze, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament's Committee on Human Rights, on Monday said the goal of the hunger strike declared by several members of the opposition United National Movement party in support of allowing the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili a transfer abroad for medical treatment was for “facilitating his escape from responsibility”.
Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday said the 2021 arrival of former President Mikheil Saakashvili from Ukraine to Georgia had been a “special operation” to involve the country in the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Citizens opposition party MP Aleko Elisashvili on Monday criticised the appeal of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy for Georgian authorities to enable the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili's transfer abroad for medical treatment as "inappropriate".
Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said it was “categorically unacceptable” to draw parallels between cases involving the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili and prospects of Georgia joining the European Union.