Special Penitentiary Service official: medical report on Saakashvili confirms no poisoning

Malkhaz Urtkmelidze, the Head of the Medical Department of Georgia’s Special Penitentiary Service, on Wednesday said the conclusions of a medical study on the condition of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili rejected the possibility of poisoning of the former official.

Made following claims by a part of Saakashvili’s entourage on the former official having been poisoned during his detention, the comment by Urtkmelidze noted the results of the report, compiled by the United States-based NMS Labs.

The official said the results of the laboratory’s examination had shown the examined toxic substance in the system of the patient was “not present in the body in a poisonous amount”.

[In the conclusions of the report] both the minimum limit and the acceptable norm [for the substance] are indicated. It turned out that the numbers they provided in the laboratory [...] are below the norm”, Urtkmelidze pointed out.

The former President has been receiving treatment at the Vivamedi clinic in Tbilisi since May 12, after he was moved from the Gori Military Hospital - where he was transferred in late November 2021 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 last year.

Saakashvili 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.