Georgia’s ex-president Saakashvili moved to prison hospital

Authorities say 53-year-old Saakashvili was transferred to the prison hospital five weeks after the prison’s hunger strike was announced.

Georgia’s jailed former president Mikhail Saakashvili has been transferred to a prison hospital, officials said, just five weeks after the hunger strike was announced.

Saakashvili, 53, was arrested on October 1 this year after returning to Georgia on the eve of local elections to rally the opposition, which he described as a mission to save the country.

Georgia’s Penitentiary Department said in a statement, “In order to prevent the deterioration of Mikhail Saakashvili’s health condition and because of the increased risk to (his) safety, he was transferred from prison number 12 to prison number 18 to inmates.” Gaya.” Monday.

The announcement came as his supporters were preparing to rally for his hospitalization in Tbilisi instead of the prison hospital – as advised by physicians.

Earlier on Monday, doctors examining Saakashvili said he was at “high risk of systemic complications and needed immediate treatment at a high-tech clinic.”

Georgia’s Rights Ombudsman Nino Lomajaria said the prison hospital failed to meet doctors’ criteria.

Saakashvili was imprisoned in the city of Rustavi, south of the capital Tbilisi.

He has refused food for 39 days in protest against his imprisonment, which he says is politically motivated.

He faced six years in prison after pleading in absentia in 2018 to abuse his office during his rule as president of the former Soviet republic from 2004 to 2013 – charges he described as politically motivated. In rejected.

President Salome Zurabichvili said last week that Saakashvili had returned to destabilizing Georgian politics and could never be forgiven.

But he said given the strong public interest in his case, he should be recognized as a special prisoner and authorities should take all possible measures “so that the deterioration of his health is not used for political speculation or instability”.

A lawyer for Saakashvili did not immediately comment on his transfer.