"He has a psychological trauma, he changed a lot". What happened to Saakashvili in the hospital

Saakashvili’s mental and health condition

Public Defender Nino Lomjaria visited former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who is currently being treated at the Gori military hospital. As Nino Lomjaria told reporters, it is very difficult to get into his ward. However, the Ombudsman notes that certain issues regarding his rights have been resolved.

Some of the previously reported issues have been fixed. For example, the convoy is no longer present during his medical examinations. Also, the problem is that he needs certain personal items, hygiene items. He will need a place to walk, when he is physically able to do so, we will transfer all this to the penitentiary service”, said Nino Lomjaria.

According to Lomjaria, Health Minister Yekaterina Tikaradze asked the Public Defender to visit Mikhail Saakashvili.

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Mikheil Saakashvili’s mother, Giuli Alasania, says her son has changed a lot. After visiting Saakashvili at the Gori hospital, Alasania told reporters that Saakashvili had lost another kilogram over the past two days.

“He is pale, weak, but the main thing is his psychological condition, it is very alarming. He received psychological trauma. This is not the person we knew … Overall, he has changed a lot. It is difficult for him to walk”, said Alasania.

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

Immediately after the 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 as well as Georgia’s informal ruler Bidzina Ivanishvili.

The former president went on a hunger strike for 50 days. For the past two weeks, he has 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. The Public Defender and the Service of the State Inspector of Georgia applied to the government with this request. In addition, the US State Department made the same appeal.

In addition, on November 10, the European Court of Human Rights issued a decision on interim measures, in which it asked Saakashvili to end the hunger strike and instructed the state to ensure the prisoner’s safety and appropriate treatment.

Despite all this, members of the government still called Mikheil Saakashvili’s hunger strike “fake” and categorically refused to transfer him to a civilian multidisciplinary clinic.