Ex president Mikheil Saakashvili ‘condition rises concern

• Mikheil Saakashvili has received calls for his release from the international community.
• His health has severely declined during his incarceration.
• And he claims that the government poisoned him.

After he appeared gaunt in court, Mikheil Saakashvili, the imprisoned former president of Georgia, has received calls for his release from the international community.

Since October 2021, Mr. Saakashvili has been detained in a Georgian prison. He participated in the court on Wednesday via video.

He was found guilty of abusing his position of authority. He claims the accusations were made for political reasons.

His health has severely declined during his incarceration, and he claims that the government poisoned him.

After making an unexpected return to Georgia by sneaking into the nation from Ukraine on a ship, Mr. Saakashvili was detained in 2021. He called for widespread antigovernmental protests, but Georgian officials immediately detained him.

He was found guilty in his absence of abusing his position of authority.

He was self-harming, according to Rati Bregadze, the minister of justice for Georgia, and his condition was brought on by his reluctance to eat.

According to Mr. Saakashvili’s medical staff, during his incarceration, his weight has decreased from 115kg (254 pounds) to 68kg (150 pounds).

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, was one of the international leaders that demanded his release, claiming that the government were “torturing and killing” him.

Mr. Zelenskyy asserted during a press conference that he thought the present Georgian administration was attempting to “kill” Mr. Saakashvili.

After receiving Ukrainian citizenship in 2015, Mr. Saakashvili appeared in court speaking entirely in Ukrainian and donning a “I Am Ukrainian” t-shirt. Between 2015 and 2016, he was also in charge of the western province of Odesa.

Maia Sandu, the president of Moldova, also demanded Mr. Saakashvili’s immediate release.

“Torturing an opposition leader to death is unacceptable for a country that wants to join the European Union,” she wrote in a tweet.

Empathy, an organization supporting victims of torture in Georgia, alleged on 1 December that Mr. Saakashvili had been diagnosed with illnesses “incompatible with imprisonment” and that Georgian and foreign medical experts had found evidence of heavy-metal poisoning.

On Thursday, the European Parliament debated Mr. Saakashvili’s health, where the European Commissioner for Budget and Administration, Johannes Hahn, said the Georgian government was obliged to provide him appropriate healthcare.

Late last year, Mr. Saakashvili gave French President Emmanuel Macron a hand-written note reading: “SOS. I am dying, I have very little time left.”

Authorities in Georgia claim that Mr. Saakasvhili is self-harming and that he is fake illness to get out of jail.

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