Mikheil Saakashvili's transfer to Gldani prison: November 8 chronology
Everything we know about ex-President Saakashvili’s transfer to Gldani prison
On the evening of November 8, the former President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, was transferred from Rustavi prison to Gldani prison N18 Medical Facility.
Saakashvili was transferred to Gldani prison against his will.
Saakashvili has been on a hunger strike for 40 days. He drank water and took in small portions of porridge and baby food. However, after the Penitentiary Service released footage from the prison doctor’s office on November 6, where the former president was taking a spoonful of food supplied by doctors, Saakashvili also refused to take in any food at all.
For several weeks, Saakashvili’s doctor, the doctors’ council set up to monitor his health, as well as the ombudsman, Saakashvili’s family members, have been demanding that he be transferred to a multidisciplinary civilian clinic.
Elene Khoshtaria, the leader of Droa party, and Gigla Tumanishvili, a journalist of the Main Channel, went on a hunger strike demanding that Saakashvili be transferred to a civilian clinic. Several Saakashvili supporters also went on a hunger strike. Authorities refused to transfer Saakashvili to a civilian clinic from day one, saying Saakashvili would only be treated in Gldani prison. Saakashvili himself was strongly opposed ton being transferred to Gldani.
Finally, on November 8, Saakashvili was fraudulently transferred from Rustavi Prison to Gldani Prison. Moreover, for more than an hour nothing was known about his whereabouts.
Prisoner from cell B 318 – What can be seen in the footage released by the Penitentiary Service
According to the Public Defender, Saakashvili was deceived into believing that he would not be taken to a prison hospital, but to a civilian, multi-profile clinic.
Therefore, the footage released by the Penitentiary Service shows that the third president voluntarily collects his luggage from the cell.
The footage shows Saakashvili packing his luggage to leave the cell. There is no sound on the video and it shows the time when it was recorded.
The first shot of the video starts at 17:15. At this time Saakashvili is in a cell and is already packing. The last shot was taken at 17:36. Saakashvili is already leaving the Rustavi prison, holding two bags and walking down the prison stairs, escorted by prison staff.
There are two iron beds in Saakashvili’s cell, one small table, a chair on the floor, a small pump, and two shelves hanging on the keel.
The room has an electric heater. On the table lie two green plastic cups with Turkish coffee grounds, a small TV, a pile of books and papers and a table lamp.
There is a water kettle and empty and full bottles of water.
The cell is messy. Printed sheets of paper and books are lying on the bed and on the floor. Books include Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and Yuval Noe Harar’s Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.
Two printed photos are glued to the wall – both photos of Lisa Iasko and Mikheil Saakashvili.
The third president sorts the luggage in two transparent parks – clothes, underwear, Gillette razor, books, and a notebook. Prison staff escorts him out of the cell.
By taking a closer look at the numbering of cells in the corridor, it is possible to guess that Saakashvili’s cell number in Rustavi prison was probably B 318.
The prison escort takes Saakashvili to the exit. One of the members of staff takes the bags that Saakashvili was just holding.
How Saakashvili got to Gldani hospital
Giuli Alasania first spread the word about Saakashvili being taken out of the Rustavi prison.
The Penitentiary Service did not provide any information about his transfer in advance – neither the Public Defender’s Office nor the family or the lawyers were informed in advance.
At 17:59 – that is, about half an hour after Saakashvili was transferred from the prison in Rustavi, the Main Channel was informed that Saakashvili was no longer there.
At 6:57 p.m., the official Facebook account of the Special Penitentiary Service reported that Saakashvili had been transferred to the No. 18 Medical Center for Accused and Convicts “to prevent deterioration of health and due to increased risks”.
Prior to that, for more than an hour, it was unknown where Saakashvili was.
Rustavi prison is located 50 kilometers, or one hour away from the seventh micro-district of Gldani, where the prison hospital is located.
It is known that Saakashvili was taken from Rustavi to Gldani prison by ambulance.
What the Minister of Justice says
After Mikheil Saakashvili was taken to Gldani Prison Hospital, Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze told Imedi TV that the former president had physically and verbally abused staff during his transfer to prison:
“When Mikheil Saakashvili was transferred to this new facility, # 18, he verbally and physically abused our staff”, the justice minister said.
He also said that the agency will have an appropriate response to this fact:
“We can not allow anyone, no matter who they are, to treat our proud employees, who have not even been able to see their own family members for months, to do so. Everything will be disclosed to the public soon. The General Inspectorate will start the investigation and will inform the public and the lawyers”.
About an hour after the announcement, the agency issued an official statement that said the ex-president also damaged expensive medical equipment.
“The Ministry of Justice has already issued the relevant legal response to this fact. The General Inspection of the Ministry of Justice has launched an investigation into the fact”, reads the statement of the Ministry of Justice.
Following the Minister of Justice’s statement, Mikheil Saakashvili’s lawyer Nika Gvaramia said that the lawyers suspected that the ex-president had been physically assaulted while in prison.
“Now they are trying to explain the injuries by the patient’s aggression. In order to dispel our suspicions, we demand the immediate publication of videos of Mikheil Saakashvili in Gldani prison and his physical condition”, Gvaramia said.
Public Defender in Gldani Prison
On the night of November 8, Saakashvili was only visited in Gldani Hospital by the Public Defender and another member of her office.
Mikheil Gongadze, a spokesman for the Public Defender’s Office who was able to visit Saakashvili, said the former president had been taken to Gldani prison by force.
“He [Mikheil Saakashvili] did not want to move to establishment # 18. He was taken out of the car and evicted by force, as he refused to get out of the car in protest. They grabbed his hand and brought him to the cell. He refuses treatment and continues his hunger strike”, Mikheil Ghoghadze said.
Gongadze says he did not notice any physical injuries on Saakashvili’s body.
According to him, as he learned from Mikheil Saakashvili, he was taken to Gldani prison by ambulance. The former president is currently in an isolated ward and there are no prisoners on “his perimeter”.
Later, Public Defender Nino Lomjaria also visited Saakashvili.
Lomjaria also confirms that Saakashvili refused to get out of the car when he realized he had been taken to the Gldani prison hospital.
Saakashvili’s personal doctor, Nikoloz Kipshidze, also demanded the right to visit him, as well as his lawyer Nika Gvaramia. On the night of November 8, they were denied entry due to non-working hours.
Kipshidze fears that prison doctors will not be able to manage Saakashvili’s health.
“I last saw President Saakashvili yesterday, he was quite weak. So this morning we had a consultation. I want to tell you that we held this council without the patient. We were there for a few hours, even though we did not see Misha. So I ask, I ask, and I keep asking, I do not know what words to use to be able to visit President Saakashvili as soon as possible because I am very worried about his condition. I emphasize once again that his condition was quite serious yesterday and today, so I think it is necessary for him and my colleagues to see him today”, Saakashvili’s personal doctor said.
“Shumok” in Gldani Prison Hospital
As soon as the ex-president Saakashvili was transferred to Gldani, an incident noted by the Public Defender’s Office occurred – there was a noise in the prison – the so-called prisoners’ “shumok” was arranged. Offensive statements and swearing at Saakashvili were heard from the cells throughout the night.
Saakashvili’s lawyers describe it as psychological terror used against Mikheil Saakashvili and the government orchestrated it. According to them, this aggression was expected and that is why they had categorically opposed the transfer of Mikheil Saakashvili to the prison hospital.
The Public Defender’s Office also opposed the transfer of Mikheil Saakashvili to the Eighteenth Hospital for two reasons.
According to her, first, the hospital lacks adequate equipment for his treatment – for example, Gldani does not have the computed tomography that Saakashvili needs.
The government decided to solve this problem – on the day of Saakashvili’s stay, a tomography machine was delivered to the Gldani prison hospital.
The second concern was Saakashvilis’s safety. The 18th medical facility of the prison is located on the territory of the 8th prison of Gldani. The eighth prison is an ordinary prison – where criminal authorities, among others, are serving their sentences. “Putting the former president in a ‘normal’ prison is dangerous”, the ombudsman’s office said.
In Rustavi, the 12th prison, where Saakashvili was held until now, is reserved for a special category of prisoners – those whose presence in ordinary prisons, with ordinary convicts and criminal authorities, is not safe.
In Rustavi prison, former police officers, politicians, officials are held.
“If you are a prisoner, those who arrested you should not be put in the same prison and should not be placed in the same cell. It is no rocket science. This will lead to great unrest and disorganization, so the inmate in this prison needs special security”, Deputy Public Defender Giorgi Burjanadze told RFE / RL.
The first letter from Gldani: I was dragged to the ground and hit in the neck several times
At a briefing, Nika Gvaramia, General Director of the Main Channel, who is also Mikheil Saakashvili’s lawyer, read a letter from Mikheil Saakashvili which he wrote at the Gldani Prison Hospital:
Saakashvili describes the process of transfer from Rustavi Penitentiary Institution # 12 to Gldani to Medical Institution #18.
Saakashvili says he was physically assaulted during the transfer – when he resisted, he was thrown to the ground, hit in the neck and scratched in the hair. He also says that the prisoners in Gldani prison were cursing and shouting at him. Saakashvili says prison hospital staff also treat him rudely and they “looked like criminals”.
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Mikheil Saakashvili's letter from Gldani prison
“I was deceived because I was told that I was being taken to a regular clinic in the city. I canceled a meeting with the doctors, a visit of my mother and my children. When I was taken in, a large “crowd” of criminals attacked me and this “crowd” did not stop until this moment. And one of the representatives of the prison, apparently the foreman, declared to me: “Behold, Chito, take it in your hands”. And started swearing. I asked for his name, but they refused to tell me”, Saakashvili wrote. Despite my categorical refusal, I was dragged out of the car, dragged to the ground under the wines of criminals, and hit on the neck several times, dragged by the hair and, of course, this time I resisted. Just like in the ward where an unidentified criminal-looking paramedic approached me and this time, indeed, I threw his hands off, because they started doing something with a needle without my permission. My reaction was provoked by all the insults and violence that I endured. Everyone acted like a real criminal”.
