Vice PM “once again” calls on Saakashvili to stop “self-harm” based on ECHR ruling
Tsulukiani noted the court had “several criteria” to assess the protection of rights, health and life of the prisoner, adding the Georgian Government met all the criteria in Saakashvili’s treatment in custody, which has now been confirmed by the ECHR. Photo via Government Administration
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Thea Tsulukiani, the Vice Prime Minister of Georgia, on Saturday, “once again” called on the imprisoned former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to stop “self-harm” and restore “food intake”, based on the European Court of Human Rights ruling, which rejected his request to be transferred to Poland for treatment.
The ECHR’s ruling, announced by Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze on Friday, had neither accepted Saakashvili’s lawyers’ request for his transfer abroad nor instructed the Georgian authorities to move the former official to another treatment facility within the country.
Tsulukiani noted the court had “several criteria” to assess the protection of rights, health and life of the prisoner, adding the Georgian Government met all the criteria in Saakashvili’s treatment in custody, which has now been confirmed by the ECHR.
Saakashvili, who has Ukrainian citizenship and had held a public post in the country, was arrested on return to Georgia in October 2021 and has been serving a six-year term for abuse of power in the case he was convicted on. He has been undergoing treatment at the Vivamedi civilian clinic in Tbilisi since May 2022, with three other cases against him pending.
Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze on Friday said the European Court of Human Rights had rejected the imprisoned former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s request to be transferred to Poland’s capital Warsaw for treatment.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, on Friday, said the European Court of Human Rights ruling, rejecting the imprisoned former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s request to be transferred to Poland for treatment, confirmed that the Government’s action towards him “was appropriate and in accordance with the highest human rights standards”.
The Special Penitentiary Service will not go against the involvement of foreign doctors in the medical care of the convicted former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, the Justice Ministry said on Thursday.
Vice Prime Minister Thea Tsulukiani on Friday expressed her hope that imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili would stop “self-harming” and resume his normal diet, in response to recent comments by doctors that the former official “eats what he wants and when he wants”, refusing to follow their instructions.
Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Saturday said "generally", some members of the European Parliament, the former Public Defender and various opposition parties had to apologise to the Government, after the European Court of Human Rights confirmed that Georgian authorities “have acted in accordance with the human rights standards” regarding the former President Saakashvili’s treatment in custody.