Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Georgia on Monday (19 December) to permit its jailed former president to go overseas for therapy to safeguard his well being.
Mikheil Saakashvili, president of ex-Soviet Georgia from 2004 to 2013, was initially credited with implementing reforms. He was later sentenced to 6 years in jail on abuse of energy, expenses his supporters say are politically motivated.
First convicted in absentia in 2018, Saakashvili labored for various Ukrainian governments, together with Zelenskyy’s administration, earlier than returning residence and being detained in 2021. He has launched quite a few starvation strikes and his attorneys need his sentence suspended so he can search therapy overseas.
“Everybody has most likely seen the state of Mikheil Saakashvili’s well being. I enchantment to the individuals of Georgia, to the authorities of Georgia,” Zelenskyy mentioned in his nightly video deal with.
“It’s crucial to indicate mercy, particularly as Christmas approaches. What is going on to Mikheil now’s cruelty. It doesn’t grow to be Georgia. It should be stopped.”
Zelenskyy requested that Saakashvili, 54, be transferred to a medical facility in Ukraine, Europe or the USA.
Saakashvili, who’s being handled in a Tbilisi clinic, final week declared a brand new starvation strike in protest at not being allowed to attend a Tbilisi court docket listening to by video hyperlink.
He known as it off hours later after being urged to take action by members of the European Parliament.
The court docket heard opening arguments from prosecutors earlier than it adjourned till 22 December.
Georgian authorities say Saakashvili is “simulating” the seriousness of his situation to attempt to safe his launch. Saakashvili has not been seen in public for months. The European Union has known as stories about Saakashvili’s well being “worrying” and known as on the federal government to supply medical care.
Critics, together with these within the ruling Georgian Dream social gathering, say he abused his energy and misplaced widespread help.
