Judge instructs Special Penitentiary Service head to ensure proper healthcare for Saakashvili

Tbilisi City Court Judge Badri Kochlamazashvili has instructed the director of the Special Penitentiary Service to take all necessary measures within his competence, based on the motion of ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s lawyers, to protect the health of imprisoned third president. 

According to Saakashvili’s lawyer, Nika Gvaramia, they requested that Saakashvili be provided with adequate healthcare and that the medical council of the center Empathy be admitted to prison.

Saakashvili’s doctor Nikoloz Kipshidze says that he has not been permitted to see the former president in Rustavi prison since December 30.

The judge said that if the instruction is not fulfilled and if the lawyers present evidence for this, the issue will be further discussed. 

Saakashvili is convicted for abuse of power and faces several other charges. 

A trial hearing was held today in one of the cases involving Saakashvili. 

The Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office says that per the agreement between Saakashvili and former head of Special State Protection Service of Georgia, Teimuraz Janashia, between 2009 and 2013, the state funds were used for expensive procedures and clothes for Saakashvili and his close circle, including botox procedures. 

 The Prosecutor’s Office says that the money was cut from the budget of the state agency in a classified manner. 

Saakashvili has been charged with embezzlement of almost nine million GEL in the case.

The former president dismisses allegations and says that he is a political prisoner.