Georgian authorities say Saakashvili is 'imitating' a hunger strike

JAMnews

Tbilisi

A month after the ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili went on a hunger strike after getting arrested, representatives of the authorities call Saakashvili’s form of protest an “imitation” and a “fake” and made ironic statements about this.

Party members of the former president and his doctors say the health condition of the starving Saakashvili is deteriorating day by day.

At the same time, Irakli Kobakhidze, chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, said on November 2 that if a person goes on hunger strike for a month, it is his right, and the government has nothing to do with it.

“This hunger strike is actually an imitation … The whole prison is joking about his love for lemonade. We are glad that his health is not actually under threat.

This question is actually not interesting at all. One of the prisoners went on a hunger strike. This prisoner is Saakashvili, convicted of much more serious crimes than the others. The government is obliged to treat such a prisoner in accordance with human rights standards”, said the chairman of the ruling party.

Kobakhidze’s statement was preceded by the statement of another leader of the Georgian Dream Mamuka Mdinaradze who said that “a starving person can live 40 days, we will wait for 41 days”.

“Let the penitentiary service, the Ministry of Justice be allowed to disclose personal data, then let’s see if this is a fake hunger strike or a half-hunger strike, etc. There are doubts. Let’s talk about them”, Mdinaradze said.

The third president of Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili, has been on hunger strike for 33 days. Doctors monitoring his health say his condition could worsen at any time.

Saakashvili’s girlfriend, deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Liza Yasko, after her visit to the prison on November 1, said that the ex-president had lost 20 kg and his condition was even worse than at the previous meeting:

“It is very wrong to just wait for a person’s condition to deteriorate. It is a pity that President Saakashvili is in prison and his condition is getting worse every day. You can’t leave him like that”.

Over the past few days, party members and supporters have called on Mikheil Saakashvili to end the hunger strike. Among them is the chairman of the party, Nika Melia.

Many citizens have already written on social media that the government’s reaction and statements to the ex-president’s form of protest are shameful:

“It is a pity that Saakashvili’s seemingly irrational model of protest is the most rational in opposing the Ivanishvili regime – in other words, the transition from a comfortable form of protest to an extremely uncomfortable one, since protests that are both pleasant and useful are accepted very slowly”, writer Lasha Bugadze said in his post.

Mikheil Saakashvili was arrested on October 1 in Tbilisi after secretly returning to his homeland.

Several criminal cases have been launched against the third president of Georgia. He was convicted in two of them, the investigation is ongoing in two more.

Besides. he was charged with illegal crossing of the Georgian border.

The ex-president, in the status of a wanted person, was transferred to prison No. 12 of Rustavi immediately after his arrest. On the same evening, he went on a hunger strike.

Lawyers are demanding that the starving president, whose health is deteriorating, be taken to a civilian clinic. The Ministry of Interior says that if necessary, the ex-president will be taken to a prison hospital.

According to the Public Defender of Georgia, the prison hospital lacks the necessary equipment for his treatment and safe conditions for the stay former president, who has many enemies in the criminal world.

Saakashvili himself does not agree to be transferred to a prison hospital. Until now, he categorically refuses to end the hunger strike.