Tbilisi Court of Appeals upholds verdict denying ex-Pres. Saakashvili transfer abroad on health grounds
Former President Mikheil Saakashvili was arrested in Tbilisi in October 2021. Photo: 1TV
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The Tbilisi Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld the verdict of the Tbilisi City Court that denied the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili's release or postponement of the rest of his sentence on health grounds.
Saakashili’s lawyer Shalva Khachapuridze told InterPressNews the trial hearing had been held in absentia, and pledged to appeal the ruling to the country’s Supreme Court.
The ruling upheld the City Court’s decision last month that rejected claims of the former President’s legal team on his alleged need for “urgent treatment abroad due to multiple and serious health problems”.
Georgian Government members and penitentiary authorities have been challenging the position by saying that Saakashvili has been engaged in “self-harm through disobeying doctors”, in a bid to facilitate his “illegal release” from detention.
Saakashvili, who has Ukrainian citizenship and held a public post in the country, was arrested on return to Georgia in October 2021 and is serving a six-year term for abuse of power in a case he had been convicted on. He has been undergoing treatment in the Vivamedi civilian clinic in Tbilisi since May 2022, with three other cases against him pending.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday said the Georgian public had responded with rejection to the “radicalism” and the “staged movie” of the 2021 clandestine return to the country of the now-imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze on Sunday said the “wish” of the Georgian Government to ensure “good health” of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili was “not reciprocated” in the actions of the former official.
Georgia’s imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili has lost his appeal for release or postponement of the rest of his sentence on health grounds, with Tbilisi City Court on Monday denying the application in the case that has been surrounded by public debate.
Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili had "confirmed he is an ordinary agent" of a foreign state.
Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday said comments at the European Parliament that mentioned the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili as a “political prisoner” demonstrated “corruption problems” at the body.
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.
Levan Ioseliani, the newly appointed Public Defender of Georgia, on Sunday visited the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili and 13 other inmates currently undergoing treatment at the Vivamedi civilian clinic in Tbilisi.
The civilian Vivamedi clinic in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, where the country’s imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili has been receiving treatment [since May 2022], on Wednesday appealed to the Special Penitentiary Service to evaluate the “expediency” of Saakashvili’s “further stay” in hospital.
The Medical Council under the Public Defender’s Office of Georgia on Tuesday said the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili was suffering from progressive loss of muscle mass and strength that could seriously limit his movement.
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”.
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.
Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze on Thursday, after the meeting with the representatives of the diplomatic corps in the country, said “there were not any questions” concerning the European Court of Human Rights ruling, which had rejected the imprisoned former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s request to be transferred to Poland for treatment.
Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said those who called for the release of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili on health grounds while knowing he was “faking his health condition” “must apologise to the Georgian public”.
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.
Shalva Papuashvili, the Georgian Parliament Speaker, on Wednesday said “everyone inside and outside the country” who had “protected and promoted” the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili since his conviction in Georgia in absentia in 2018 had “accepted unrest” in the country.
Koka Katsitadze, the Chair of Georgia’s Special Investigation Service, on Tuesday said the country’s imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili had failed to respond to his agency’s offer of an interview following the former official’s claims of having been poisoned in custody.
The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday rejected as “inadmissible” complaints brought by the imprisoned former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili against Ukraine on alleged mistreatment and politically motivated decisions against him dating back to 2017 and 2018.