"If Saakashvili dies, the Georgian government will never recover" - Arestovich

Alexey Arestovich about Saakashvili

If the third president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, dies in prison, the Georgian government will never live it down, Aleksey Arestovich, advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine, said on the Feigin Live program.

As Arestovich explained, politically the government of Georgia does not need Saakashvili because they are afraid of him and consider him their enemy. Saakashvili is a large-scale and complex personality, and “one can endlessly criticize and praise admire him, and there is something to it,” Arestovich said, and in both cases there are reasons for this:

“The question arises: what to do with such a figure? He himself went to Georgia and fell into the hands of the authorities. Now he is in prison. They are afraid to kill him, they are afraid to let him go, so they are letting him rot. And then they will say it was age, old age, illness, solitary confinement, nerves, that he brought himself to such a state. It will be very difficult to prove that he was killed, it will be very difficult to prove that he was not provided with adequate care.”

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Saakashvili is a figure of such magnitude that “they [the authorities] all together are not worth him alone”, Arestovich.

“His fate is tragic. Can Ukraine do something? They will tell us that we are interfering in the affairs of a sovereign state, it is up to Georgian justice,” Arestovich said, who added that he does not know if Ukrainian President Zelensky can do anything in this situation. If [Saakashvili] dies in prison, the Georgian authorities will never live it down, no matter what evidence they provide — that they did everything necessary or did nothing so that he did not die, this stain will never be washed off, ”Arestovich stated.

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The medical experts of Empathy Center have published a medical report on the health of former third president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili. He was diagnosed with more than twenty disorders, ten of them serious, and Saakashvili’s condition is incompatible with imprisonment, doctors say. The main diagnoses have not been made public.

The report says that Saakashvili’s health is dire. Certain conditions will cause irreversible deterioration in health, reduced life expectancy and even death if Saakashvili is not given adequate treatment.

Saakashvili was found to have a fever of unknown etiology, anorexia, rapid weight loss, muscle, joint and bone pain, and body irritation and muscle spasms, which may be “the result of an unknown infectious process and / or possible intoxication.”

On November 28, a new trial began in the Tbilisi City Court on the case of illegal border crossing [Saakashvili returned to Georgia illegally from Ukarina in October last year]. Saakashvili was supposed to personally attend the court, but could not owing to his health. As a result, Judge Nino Chakhnashvili adjourned the hearing without setting a next date.

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said on November 24 that Mikheil Saakashvili’s health is important for the country’s reputation, and if he feels so unwell, the court should make an adequate decision.

According to an assessment with the Public Defender of Georgia, published in April this year, the former president’s health is serious. The family requests that he be allowed abroad for treatment.

Alexey Arestovich about Saakashvili