Mikheil Saakashvili promises to end hunger strike if taken to civil clinic for rehabilitation

The third president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili promises to end the hunger strike if the government implements the decision of Strasbourg and ensures his rehabilitation after the hunger strike.

On November 10, a Strasbourg court issued a ruling on “temporary measures” referring to Mikheil Saakashvili’s hunger strike, his health and safety.

The Strasbourg court gave priority and issued its interim decision on it. The content of the “temporary measures” shows that the European Court of Human Rights has seen the danger of irreparable damage to Saakashvili’s life and health.

In addition to safety and proper, adequate treatment, the authorities were instructed to provide appropriate medical care to Mikheil Saakashvili during or after the hunger strike to restore his health (provided that Mikheil Saakashvili ends it).

What Mikheil Saakashvili is asking for:

● The medical council should decide which multifunctional institution and what method of treatment Saakashvili will be provided with during the post hunger strike rehabilitation process.

● The council should be composed of professionals, on a parity basis, and consist of representatives of the ex-president and state-appointed officials.

● “The council’s decision should be not of a recommendatory nature, but of a binding one, which Saakashvili will obey unconditionally and so will the government.

● “In this situation, as soon as this decision is made and I am transferred to a multi-profile facility, I will immediately end the hunger strike”.

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According to Saakashvili, the actions of the government from the first day of his hunger strike to the present day are a deliberate and planned assassination operation ordered by Vladimir Putin.

“Today’s footage, which clearly shows who is the winner and who is on the dark side, is seriously damaging the government itself. Therefore, it seems unbelievable that the government published these footages”, Saakashvili wrote.

According to him, this paradox has a very clear explanation – making Georgian patriots extremely angry, so that the next provocations of the government lead to civil strife, which will then lead to Russia’s invasion and occupation of the country under the guise of “neutralizing the border threats”:

“My hunger is already becoming a weapon of struggle between the Russians and the current government, not against me, but against my country.

“Therefore, I decided to take into account the decision of the Strasbourg court, as well as our Western partners, and end the hunger strike”.

According to the ex-president, the termination of the hunger strike has a reservation, because the process of rehabilitation after the famine is much more complicated than the process of hunger management, and in Gldani Hospital there are neither technological conditions nor properly qualified medical staff.

In addition, he explained, it is inconceivable to trust the staff of the institution who is in a state of torture and whose violence we have seen today.

“Also, there is no guarantee of security and protection from psychological violence, which is a requirement of the Strasbourg court.

I also consider Gori Hospital to be the biggest threat, as Russian special forces units are located a few kilometers from this hospital. Russia is the main organiser of my liquidation”, Saakashvili wrote.

Mikheil Saakashvili has been on hunger strike for more than 40 days since he was arrested on October 1.

On November 8, he was transferred from Rustavi Prison to Gldani Prison Hospital against his will in order to “prevent deterioration of his health.” Saakashvili himself, his family, doctors and the Public Defender’s Office opposed his transfer to the prison hospital on the grounds that the prison hospital lacked the medical equipment needed to treat Saakashvili and was also unsafe.

The Public Defender inspected the medical facility in Gldani Prison several times. The ombudsman wrote in the reports that the conditions in the clinic were inappropriate for the treatment of the patient.

Elene Khoshtaria, the leader of the political party “Droa”, started a hunger strike in the parliament demanding to take Saakashvili to the civil clinic.

Saakashvili was secretly transferred to Gldani on November 8, and, at same tome, the opposition launched large-scale, continuous protests demanding the release of Mikheil Saakashvili and the calling of early elections.