The imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili “decided to stop speculations and simulations with his health and admit he is feeling good” after the European Court of Human Rights in May rejected his request for seeing the Georgian Government be ordered to facilitate his transfer abroad on health grounds, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said on Wednesday.
Garibashvili made the comment at the Georgia Cybersecurity Forum in Tbilisi, following Saakashvili’s social media post earlier this month, made from a civilian clinic in Tbilisi where he has been receiving treatment since May 2022, that said he had plans for “active engagement” in domestic politics “despite poor health”.
In his comments, the PM also said the former official should “extend his apologies to the county and its people” for the “unbridled, anti-state campaign” by him and his family, allies and lobbyists since his arrest in Tbilisi in October 2021. Garibashvili said the alleged campaign had been run in a bid to ensure his “illegal release” from prison through “fake claims on torture and ill-treatment” in custody.
Garibashvili stressed the ECHR ruling, which also rejected Saakashvili’s transfer to another clinic within Georgia, had “put an end to this dirty campaign” and forced Saakashvili to “stop staging shows”.
I believe that everyone inside and outside the country is left with no questions now that Saakashvili had staged a masquerade over his health”, the Government head said, and urged the European and American politicians to also apologise for defending Saakashvili’s stance and his attempts to “damage the country’s [image] worldwide”.
He also slammed Saakashvili for his request - as a citizen of Ukraine - to address a trial hearing in Tbilisi City Court in the Ukrainian language last year, saying the “world history has not witnessed such degradation of a politician, moreover a former president”.