Georgia: ex-president Saakashvili on hunger strike transferred to prison hospital

Published on : 08/11/2021 – 17:55

The state of health of the former Georgian president is deteriorating. Opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili, imprisoned and on hunger strike since early October, was transferred Monday, November 8 to a prison hospital, the penitentiary services of this Caucasian country announced on Monday.

“In order to avoid the worsening of Mikheil Saakashvili’s state of health and because of an increased risk to his safety, he was transferred from prison No. 12 to the medical establishment for detainees No. 18” , they said in a statement.

A “high risk of complications”

The announcement comes shortly before a massive demonstration scheduled for Monday evening by supporters of the former president in Tbilisi, the capital, where they planned to require his hospitalization in a civilian establishment, and not a penitentiary.

Earlier Monday, doctors who examined Mikheil Saakashvili had pointed to a “high risk of complications” and the “need for urgent treatment in a well-equipped multi-purpose clinic”.

According to Georgian human rights envoy Nino Lomjaria, a hospital-prison does not meet these criteria.

Pro-Western president from 2004 to 2013 and now considered the leader of the opposition, Mikheil Saakashvili was imprisoned on 1^er October on his return from eight years of exile, just before municipal elections won by the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Mikheïl Saakachvili immediately began a hunger strike to protest against this detention in application of a 2018 conviction for “abuse of power”, which he denounces as purely political.

Figure in the fight against corruption

The Georgian opposition, of which Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) is the leading figure, has for its part organized several massive demonstrations to call for the release of the former president and denounce the results of the municipal elections.

A charismatic and ambivalent character, renowned for having effectively fought corruption but also widely criticized for the disastrous 2008 war against Russia, Mikheïl Saakachvili left Georgia in 2013.

His imprisonment has further aggravated the political crisis in this country, which began with the legislative elections last year, narrowly won by the Georgian Dream and considered fraudulent by the opposition.

With AFP