Putin swore in 2008 to “hang him by the balls”… Former Georgian and pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili would have been poisoned with mercury and arsenic… His family blames the Kremlin boss directly!
Currently jailed for “abuse of power”, Mikheil Saakashvili, ex-president of Georgia and staunch opponent of Vladimir Putin, appeared worst during a hearing set to decide his further jail time.
A hearing conducted by video conference that shocked the ex-president’s relatives, but also public opinion. We see Saakashvili, 55, very thin and very weak, his head supported on a pillow behind his back. His gray hair and trembling hands also caused a stir.
?? Last time I met Mikheil #Saakashvili he was a healthy man. This is how he looks today, a little over a year in a Georgian prison. The welfare of every prisoner, including Saakashvili, is the responsibility of the government of #Georgia. pic.twitter.com/XY6fbhnfNy
— Viola by Cramon ???? (@ViolavonCramon) December 22, 2022
Since then, his family has been demanding that Vladimir Putin’s former opponent be removed from his prison, where he is serving a six-year sentence for “abuse of power,” to be treated abroad.
Poisoned since he was in prison
His lawyers and his family rely on the results of a toxicological analysis by American professor David Smith. Mercury and arsenic were found in his analyses. “Almost certainly these agents were introduced after Mikheil Saakashvili was arrested,” Smith said.
Saakashvili was convicted in exile in 2018 and arrested on his return to Georgia in 2021. He has since denounced a political trial, having lived in Ukraine during his exile, where he acquired Ukrainian citizenship.
The pro-Western Saakashvili opposed Putin during the 2008 Russian invasion. Putin then vowed to “hang him by the balls.”
supported by Zelensky
Today, Mikheil Saakashvili is “on the verge of death,” and his family is pointing the finger at the Russian state, which he blames for his poisoning.
For the NGO Amnesty International, the treatment of Mr Saakashvili is an “apparent political revenge”. In their struggle, the ex-president’s family received the support of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who called on the Georgian government to show “compassion”. “What is happening to Mikheil today is cruel. It has to stop,” he said.