Court does not release Mikheil Saakashvili on health grounds

Saakashvili not released

A Georgian court has denied the release of the third president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, on health grounds. The decision was announced by Judge Giorgi Arevadze at the end of the final hearing.

Saakashvili’s family members and lawyers asked for a suspension of the sentence or his release for health reasons and filed this petition with the court.

Litigation went on for several months. Now the case will be transferred to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg..

Saakashvili wrote on Facebook:

“The court session in Georgia turned out to be a complete joke. Our evidence was based on a detailed study conducted by a group of leading physicians from the US, UK, Switzerland and Georgia. Almost all of them saw me, some several times. Government experts did not see me even once. But the court believed them, and not the international team which included a Nobel laureate, who said that if I stay in prison I will die.

So now I have actually received a death sentence and will remain in prison with all the deadly diseases and a court verdict that no one in the world recognizes except Russia. It is no coincidence that Lavrov has praised the Georgian government and attacked me several times in recent weeks. Putin promised that he would see me hanged, and he appears to be doing so through his puppet oligarch, Bidzina Ivanishvili.”

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According to family members and lawyers, Mikheil Saakashvili began a rapid process of cachexia. The conclusion of the Ombudsman’s Council on health of Mikheil Saakashvili also refers to cachexia of the fourth degree and notes that he should be transferred to a multidisciplinary clinic abroad.

On December 29, 2022, American toxicologist David Smith was interrogated as a witness at Saakashvili’s trial. According to Smith, Saakashvili was poisoned with heavy metals in prison before being transferred to the Vivamed clinic.

The American toxicologist said that he had familiarized himself with Saakashvili’s medical record, the results of laboratory tests, as well as analysis of samples of hair, nails and blood.

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“The presence of these metals in the body has worsened the patient’s health. In my opinion, the poisoning occurred in March, before he was transferred to the clinic, and later these heavy metals damaged various organs. He already had symptoms when he was brought to a medical facility. That is, I think that he received heavy metal poisoning earlier, in prison. I assume that the dose of these toxic substances was so high that even after five months the concentration was above the norm,” Smith says.

At Saakashvili’s, Tamar Abashidze, a neurologist at the Vivamed clinic, was also interrogated as a witness. According to her, Mikheil Saakashvili’s neurological condition has deteriorated significantly in recent months.

Saakashvili was unable to attend the court session on January 17, despite wanting to. At the trial, American doctor and Nobel Prize winner James Cobey stated that he examined Saakashvili on October 8. According to him, Saakashvili underwent an MRI scan in November, which revealed that he had arthritis in his hip joints.

According to Cobey, the arthritis found in both of Saakashvili’s hip joints could be the result of toxic exposure. James Cobey explains that Saakashvili needs surgery on his neck and left joint, and if it is not done soon, Saakashvili could lose the ability to move.