On Wednesday, December 22, supporters of Mikhail Saakashvili set up more than a dozen tents in Tbilisi near the office of the largest opposition party, United National Movement, on the Kakheti highway. The mass hunger strike was announced at the rally the night before. One and a half hundred protesters spent the first night here, and the same number joined them during the day. It is possible that activists in other cities of Georgia will also join the hunger strike.
Not only Saakashvili
In the largest tent, designed for about fifty people, a variety of people gathered to starve – from refugees from Abkhazia to teachers and even a clergyman. Giorgi Mumladze, a lecturer at one of the Tbilisi universities, conducted classes remotely right from the place of the hunger strike. For DW, he briefly formulated the essence of the problem: “Under the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia began to resemble the USSR more and more, a large number of political prisoners appeared.”
Georgy Mumladze
His comrades-in-arms note that the matter is not even in Mikheil Saakashvili, whose release the Georgian opposition is seeking, but in the general situation, which, in their opinion, is catastrophically worsening. They gave several examples.
So, three days ago in Berlin, at the request of Tbilisi, the ex-chief of the General Staff of Georgia Giorgi Kalandadze, who, like Saakashvili, had lived in Ukraine since 2014, was detained. The consideration of the criminal case on charges of money laundering by the leaders of the Lelo for Georgia party Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze has not yet ended. The father of the founder of the opposition television channel Pirveli is also involved in the same case.
That is, everyone who is disliked by the current party in power is subject to political persecution, the protesters are sure. As one of them put it, “you shouldn’t think that Misha’s fans are rebelling here senselessly.”
Akaki Berianidze
Saakashvili’s trial
The protesters are ready to go all the way, demanding the release of Mikhail Saakashvili, on whom they pin their hopes. One of them, Akaki Berianidze, even compared the situation with the Irish hunger strike of 1981, when it came to the death of six of its participants: “We are gathered here for the world to pay attention to the situation in Georgia, and if necessary, we are ready to die.”
Against this background, on the same day, a regular session was held in the Tbilisi City Court on charges of Mikheil Saakashvili in illegally crossing the state border of Georgia. The politician himself, predictably, did not appear in court, citing unsatisfactory health. The prosecution made opening remarks and the lawyers filed several motions. Among them, as announced in the morning by the defender of Bek Basilai – to attach to the case materials of the center “Empathy”.
Inside one of the tents of Saakashvili supporters, December 22, 2021
Earlier, on December 6, the Empathy Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture and Violence issued a statement saying that Mikheil Saakashvili had been prescribed a psychotropic drug while still in Rustavi prison, which he should not have taken. This became clear after experts were able to familiarize themselves with the ex-president’s medical records. We are talking about the antipsychotic “Ketilept”. According to doctors, this medicine worsened Saakashvili’s psychological and neurological status.
An investigation into the illegal border crossing by Mikhail Saakashvili was launched on October 1, when he returned from Ukraine to Georgia on the eve of local elections to mobilize his supporters. At first, Saakashvili was sent to a prison for former officials in the city of Rustavi, but after a hunger strike and deteriorating health, he was transferred to a prison hospital in Tbilisi’s Gldani district. However, under pressure from the public, it was decided to transfer him to a military hospital in Gori, the condition of which was the end of the hunger strike.
In the case of illegal crossing of the border by a politician, charges were brought against four more persons, and they were separated into separate proceedings. The next meeting is scheduled for January 13th.
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