Ex-pres Saakashvili accepts taking medicines while on hunger strike

Former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili has accepted taking medicines, per the recommendation of a medical council which checked his health yesterday, on the 19th day of a hunger strike. 

He claims that he will not receive any food and will not stop his hunger strike until he is released from prison. 

Saakashvili reiterated earlier today that all charges against him are politically motivated and that ‘he is ready to die for his country which has been destroyed by the Georgian Dream government’ since 2012. 

A medical council checked Saakashvili’s health in Rustavi Prison No.12 yesterday per the request of the former president’s doctor Nikoloz Kipshidze.

According to one of the doctors and Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria, Saakashvili’s health is satisfactory. However, the situation may worsen any moment and the council recommended Saakashvili’s hospitalisation. 

However, until conscious, a prisoner will not be hospitalised if he is against it. 

Saakashvili was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1, a day before Georgian municipal elections, after eight years in political exile. 

He claims he returned to help his United National Movement opposition party to change the Georgian Dream government.

Saakashvili, who is now a citizen of Ukraine, was convicted in Georgia in absentia back in 2018 for abuse of authority. 

He has also been charged with four other offences which are still in courts.