Georgia’s ex-president Mikhail Saakashvili (53) was transferred to a prison hospital on Monday. He is detained and has been on hunger strike for 43 days on Friday. Massive demonstrations are taking place in the capital Tbilisi.
Saakashvili was in exile in Ukraine for eight years and was arrested immediately on his return on October 1, 2021. Background: In 2018 he was sentenced in absentia to six years imprisonment for alleged abuse of office. He rejects the accusation as politically motivated – and immediately went on a hunger strike after his arrest!
“This is political revenge,” says Mariam Kasrashvili, a politician from Saakashvili’s “Movement of New Forces” party. “We demand that his right to necessary medical care to ensure his physical safety be recognized, as well as the constitutional right to a fair trial that should not be politically biased.”
Foto: action press
“data-zoom-src =” https://bilder.bild.de/fotos/freiheit-fuer-saakaschwili-demo-in-der-georgischen-hauptstadt-tiflis-am-dienstag-zehntausende-demons-0f69be5df61e4ce2bea0fba481cd23ac-78218682/ Image / 6.bild.jpg “/> Freedom for Saakashvili: Demonstration in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Tuesday. Tens of thousands of demonstrators are demanding his releaseFoto: action press
► The transfer to the hospital was “with the aim of killing him,” wrote Saakashvili in a letter published by his lawyer. The guards mistreated him, hit him in the neck and dragged his hair across the floor, the 53-year-old reported.
A few days ago, the Georgia penal system released a video showing Saakashvili taking porridge and pills. The former president criticized this as a violation of his personal rights. He then announced that he would no longer eat any more.
The Georgian opposition politician of the “European Georgia” party, Giorgi Kandelaki, told BILD that the Georgian government, led by the “Georgian Dream” party, was “acting more and more like a satellite state of Moscow”.
▶ ︎ Kandelaki continues: “The fact that the Russian state media and the Kremlin propaganda cheer about the arrest and treatment of Saakashvili is the best litmus test for anyone who wants to understand the broad political background of this arrest.”
The pro-Western Saakashvili was President of Georgia from 2004 to 2013. He now has Ukrainian citizenship. In 2015 he had already lost the citizenship of his home country because he had accepted the Ukrainian passport.
“The political imprisonment of Saakashvili is incompatible with international human rights principles and the country’s constitutional law. Saakashvili must not be denied access to adequate medical care and the right to a fair trial, ”said Nini Tsiklauri (29), an Austrian activist and politician with Georgian roots. In 2019 she ran for the liberal Austrian party NEOS for the European Parliament.
Tsiklauri wrote a letter to Angela Merkel (67) and also to EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen (63) because influential voices are needed to positively influence the fate of Georgia.
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