Ex-president Saakashvili asks to be transferred to Kiev for treatment

Mikhail Saakashvili asks to be transferred to Ukraine

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who is currently in prison and on a hunger strike, appeals to the Georgian authorities with a request to transfer him to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, for treatment.

Saakashvili stated this at his latest trial.

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“I ask you to agree to the proposal of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and transfer me to Kiev and temporarily postpone sentencing until the situation stabilizes.

I am a citizen of Ukraine, the current chairman of the National Reform Council of Ukraine. My office is located directly next to the office of President Zelensky and is still working, by the way, I am in touch with them daily.

As soon as my health and the situation as a whole stabilizes a little, I give you my word of honor, and I never break my word. When I said that I would come, I came, although I knew what it would entail.

If you decide to continue this criminal prosecution, which I consider unfair, I will come to Tbilisi at your first call”, Saakashvili said.

Saakashvili also said that if they agree to transfer him to Kiev, he will call on his supporters to stop their protests:

“I understand very well that it is very risky to go to Kiev now. Those people have a list of names and surnames of people whom they want to destroy and I am among those on top of that list, I know this for certain.

I ask the current leadership of Georgia to take a rational and balanced approach to this proposal of mine, and I, in turn, am ready to forget all the torture and ill-treatment that I endured in prison, and much more. This is very important, all other disagreements seem small compared to what is happening today. I rely on your common sense”.

The third President of Georgia, wanted by the authorities, Mikheil Saakashvili, secretly returned to Georgia on October 1 and was arrested and transferred from the Rustavi prison to a prison on the outskirts of Tbilisi (in the Gldani region).

Immediately after his arrest, the former president went on a hunger strike in protest. Saakashvili considers himself a political prisoner and a personal prisoner of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the unofficial ruler of Georgia, Bidzina Ivanishvili.

The former president went on a hunger strike for 50 days. During the last two weeks, he refused to take medication. His condition worsened day by day. A group of doctors created by the Public Defender of Georgia Nino Lomjaria assessed his condition as critical.

Georgian civil society, diplomats, ordinary citizens, actors, writers and other public figures called on the government to transfer the ex-president to a multidisciplinary clinic. This request was submitted to the Government by the Public Defender and the Service of the State Inspector of Georgia. The US State Department made the same call. Finally, on November 19, the third president was transferred to the Gori military hospital.

In addition, on November 10, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on provisional measures asking Saakashvili to end his hunger strike and instructing the state to ensure the prisoner’s safety and treatment.