Georgia’s former president and opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili, who was sentenced to prison, vowed on Wednesday (October 20) that he will continue to refuse to be in prison after a doctor advised him to be hospitalized. Eat in.
Saakashvili, who was President of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, was arrested and imprisoned after returning from exile in Ukraine on October 1.
The 53-year-old founder of Georgia’s main opposition force, the United National Movement, immediately went on a hunger strike to protest what he called a politically motivated prosecution.
On Wednesday, Saakashvili said he will continue to fast.
“As long as I am imprisoned, I will continue to hunger strike,” he said in a statement issued by the lawyer.
“I demand that the use of justice for unjust political purposes should be stopped in Georgia.”
His doctor, Nikoloz Kipshidze, expressed concern last week about the risk of irreversible damage to Saakashvili’s health, saying that the former leader’s “potential blood disease caused him to go on a hunger strike. Particularly dangerous”.
On Tuesday night, Saakashvili was examined by a doctor, who recommended that he be hospitalized, his lawyer Dito Sazhaglishvili told AFP.
He said on Wednesday that Saakashvili agreed to “take prescription drugs and will decide whether to be hospitalized after consultation with the doctor.”
Georgian Minister of Justice Lati Bregaze told reporters that the government “will follow the doctor’s advice” and added that this transfer requires Saakashvili’s consent.
According to Georgian law, medical interventions without the patient’s informed consent are allowed only when the patient is unconscious and his life is in danger.
Saakashvili was convicted in absentia for abuse of power and was sentenced to six years in prison in 2018.
The gorgeous pro-Western reformer-who still has a loyal following as the country’s most important opposition leader-denied wrongdoing.
On Tuesday, a group of European Parliament members called for the release of Saakashvili before the European Court of Human Rights makes a ruling, which is reviewing Saakashvili’s appeal against his conviction.
Iraqi Prime Minister Garibashvili recently stated that the government had to arrest Saakashvili because he refused to withdraw from politics. This caused an uproar in Georgia.
Last week, tens of thousands of Georgians gathered on the streets of the capital Tbilisi to demand the release of Saakashvili. More than 90,000 people signed a petition in support of him.
The prosecution of Saakashvili and many of his allies has attracted the attention of the West.
His detention has exacerbated the long-standing political crisis in Georgia. The opposition parties complained about the widespread fraud in the parliamentary elections last year, and the ruling Georgia Dream Party won by a narrow margin.
