The court refused to release Saakashvili from prison due to his health
On Monday, a court in Tbilisi refused ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili an early release or a suspended sentence due to his health, the Georgian service of Radio Liberty reports. Earlier, Saakashvili’s lawyers reported that he is in intensive care. Associates of the ex-president believe that he was poisoned in prison.
In 2021, Mikhail Saakashvili was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of malicious abuse of authority. In May last year, the politician’s health began to deteriorate, and since May 12 he has been in a private clinic, while remaining in custody. On January 30, Saakashvili’s press secretary Georgy Chaladze reported that he had been transferred to the intensive care unit, but the director of the clinic did not confirm this information. Family members and lawyers sought the release of Saakashvili in order to take him abroad for treatment.
Mikhail Saakashvili, according to his team, called the court’s decision a “death sentence” for himself, issued in the interests of his political opponents.
Earlier, Saakashvili told lawyers that he was being “killed in prison using the same methods as Sergei Magnitsky” and even “even more sophisticatedly and publicly.” He turned to the well-known financier William Browder with a request to help local human rights groups in creating “a new Magnitsky List without waiting for a fatal outcome.” Browder promised to help and asked Saakashvili’s lawyers to send him a list of people they consider guilty of the alleged poisoning of the Georgian politician. He said that he would give the list to the Western governments, possibly for the introduction of sanctions.
- At the beginning of January, pickets in support of Saakashvili were held in Georgia and in more than 20 countries. Participants called to release the politician and give him the opportunity to undergo treatment in the EU. Some activists accused the current Georgian authorities of seeking Saakashvili’s death.
