07/03/2023 20:22 (act. 07/03/2023 20:30)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked the country’s ambassador to return to Tbilisi due to the state of health of former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. The Foreign Ministry in Kiev should ask the Georgian ambassador “to leave Ukraine within 48 hours,” Zelenskyy tweeted. Saakashvili, who has been imprisoned since 2021, had previously appeared thin and frail in a TV video.
Saakashvili’s doctors have been warning for months that the 55-year-old is in mortal danger. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on Monday called on the Georgian government to “hand over” Saakashvili to Ukraine and “rescue this man”. Since Zelenskyy took office in 2019, Saakashvili has worked, among other things, as his reform officer and as governor of the Odessa region.
On Monday, Saakashvili appeared at a hearing via video link, lifted his T-shirt and revealed his prominent ribs and hollow stomach. Saakashvili’s doctors said he contracted serious illnesses in prison.
According to several doctors, Saakashvili, who weighed around 115 kilograms before his arrest, has lost about 60 kilograms since then. He suffers from several serious illnesses, including heavy metal poisoning. However, Georgian authorities said he was receiving adequate medical care.
A US-based medical group examined Saakashvili at the scene and said his deteriorating health was a result of “torture” in detention. The former head of state must be immediately transferred to a medical center abroad.
After 50 days of hunger strike, the former president was hospitalized last year, where he has been imprisoned ever since. “Putting me in prison will not break me. I will actively participate in Georgian politics,” Saakashvili said in the video, which was broadcast live on several TV channels. “I didn’t commit any crime,” he said.
Saakashvili was president of Georgia from 2004 to 2013. During his tenure, the 2008 Caucasus War between Tbilisi and Moscow over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in which Georgia was defeated. Since then, Russia has maintained a strong military presence in both regions.
Today, the pro-Western reformist politician Saakashvili is the most prominent representative of the Georgian opposition to the government led by the Georgian Dream party. The party, which has been in power since 2012, is accused of silencing the opposition. Saakashvili was arrested in October 2021 on charges of abuse of power when he returned to his homeland after a long exile, which he spent mainly in Ukraine.
In late December, the severely scarred Saakashvili was connected via video link to an audience at the prison hospital. In February, a court in the capital Tbilisi ruled that Saakashvili should remain in detention. At the time, his doctors had warned him that he could die due to the massive weight loss.