Girchi ready to support Saakashvili’s treatment abroad if UNM disbands

An MP of the Girchi parliamentary opposition Iago Khvichia says that the party will support the transportation of imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili for treatment abroad or his release if the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party founded by Saakashvili will disband and refuse to run in next elections. 

 

In his previous comments Kvichia said that the “cohabitation” of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party and the UNM hampered the success of other opposition parties in Georgia. 

 

The UNM MPs have plans to appeal to parliament and be guarantors that Saakashvili will return and participate in trials concerning him if he is taken abroad for treatment. 

 

The party and the former president, who was arrested in Tbilisi in October 2021 after eight years in political exile, claim that the latter is “on the verge of death.” 

 

Doctors under the Georgian Public Defender’s medical council suggest that Saakashvili has anorexia and protein deficiency, and that the current environment hampers his recovery. 

 

The Georgian Justice Ministry stated that Saakashvili was ensured all necessary services, while “he himself refused to eat certain food and to use several of the services, including walking in fresh air.” 

 

Saakashvili, who holds Ukrainian citizenship and chaired the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council prior to his arrest just ahead of Georgian municipal polls, said he returned to help his UNM “change the Georgian Dream leadership via elections.” 
However, the current authorities said that Saakashvili planned a coup.