Special Penitentiary Service: Saakashvili’s health condition hasn’t worsened

The Special Penitentiary Service of Georgia has dismissed media reports that the health condition of Georgia’s third president Mikheil Saakashvili, who was detained in Tbilisi on October 1, has worsened due to a hunger strike. 

 

Saakashvili, who returned to Georgia after nine years in political exile just ahead of Georgian municipal elections ‘to save the country from the Georgian Dream ruling party rule,’ has been on hunger strike since October 1. 

 

He claims he has no plans to suspend the hunger strike ‘because I am limited in forms of protest in prison.’ 

 

Saakashvili’s doctor told the opposition-minded Mtavari Arkhi on the weekend that the ex-president felt bad because he has a certain blood disease and hunger strike is prohibited for him. 

 

Saakashvili left Georgia in 2013, shortly after the Georgian Dream coalition defeated his United National Movement in the 2012 parliamentary race.

 

He claims he returned after eight years to mobilize his supporters and ‘save the country from the regime of the Georgian Dream’. 

 

He was convicted for abuse of authority back in 2018 in absentia and was  sentenced to six years in prison. He has also been charged with four other cases, which are ongoing.

 

Currently he is in the Rustavi prison No.12 and encourages voters to support the opposition United National Movement in municipal election runoffs of October 30. 

 

Both he and the UNM call on voters to take to the streets on October 14.