Georgia: ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili stops hunger strike in prison

Published on : 11/20/2021 – 10:08

Former Georgian president and opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili on Saturday (November 20) ended his 50-day hunger strike in detention after being transferred to a military hospital.

Former “President Saakashvili officially ended his hunger strike just after being transferred to the military hospital in Gori”, some 90 kilometers west of the capital Tbilisi, told AFP his personal doctor, Nikoloz Kipchidzé.

“He is still in critical condition and has been placed in an intensive care unit,” he added, adding that the opponent would resume “eating later in the day on Saturday”.

Former Georgian President (2004-2013) stopped eating on 1^er October to protest against his imprisonment upon his return to Tbilisi after years of exile in Ukraine. On Thursday, he had passed out during a meeting with his lawyers.

His state of health in severe deterioration

The Georgian authorities initially rejected the doctors’ recommendations to hospitalize him in a civilian establishment, before changing your tone on Friday and transferring him overnight to a military hospital.

Thousands of supporters of Mikheil Saakashvili, 53, took to the streets on Friday night in the capital Tbilisi to demand guarantees of adequate medical assistance for the former leader of the Caucasian country, currently considered the leader. of the opposition.

On Friday, Justice Minister Rati Bregadzé accused the opposition of “exploiting Saakachvili’s health for his ridiculous political ends”.

Dr Guiorgui Grigolia, who examined Mikheil Saakashvili after his discomfort on Thursday, told AFP on Thursday that his “life was in danger” and that he should “be transferred to a civilian clinic without delay”, citing heart problems and neurological in his patient.

“Illegal imprisonment”

“I will never accept my illegal imprisonment,” Mikheil Saakashvili said on Facebook Friday evening, adding that he was ready to “appear before a fair trial and accept any verdict he delivers.”

In 2018, Saakashvili was sentenced in absentia to six years in prison for “abuse of power”, charges he said were fabricated and politically motivated.

“As soon as I am released, I will join you – as an equal among equals – in rebuilding our country,” Mikheil Saakashvili wrote. He thanked his compatriots for their “incredible demonstration of solidarity and humanity” and called for a campaign “to liberate the country” from the domination of the Georgian Dream Party of oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili.

“I believe in our victory like never before,” he said. The arrest of Mikheil Saakashvili exacerbated a political crisis following the legislative elections in 2020, narrowly won by the ruling Georgian Dream Party, and which the opposition deemed fraudulent.

Pro-Western president from 2004 to 2013 and now considered the leader of the opposition, Mikheil Saakashvili had returned to Georgia on 1^er October after an eight-year exile. Immediately arrested, he was imprisoned under his conviction for “abuse of power”, which he considers to be purely political.

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili caused a scandal by declaring that Mikheil Saakashvili “had the right to commit suicide” and that the government had been forced to arrest him because he had refused to give up politics.

With AFP