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Mikheil Saakashvili: Ex-President of Georgia fears for his life in prison clinic

2021-11-09T06:31:57.109Z


Mikheil Saakashvili was taken to a prison hospital after a hunger strike. The imprisoned former President of Georgia fears that the aim is to kill him there.


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Mikheil Saakashvili (archive recording)

Photo: Efrem Lukatsky / AP

Mikheil Saakashvili wrote in a letter describing how he was taken to a prison hospital while he was in custody.

The guards mistreated him, hit him in the neck and dragged his hair across the floor, said the 53-year-old former President of Georgia.

His lawyer published the letter.

Saakashvili returned to Georgia from Ukraine on October 1 after eight years in exile and was immediately arrested.

He went on a hunger strike to protest his detention.

The transfer to this hospital had "the goal of killing him," continued Saakashvili.

He had been transferred to the prison hospital on Monday after the Georgian authorities said the reason was that "a deterioration in his health" should be prevented after 39 days of hunger strike.

The opposition politician's lawyers, on the other hand, feared that their client would not be safe in the prison hospital because convicted criminals were used there as medical personnel.

The Priweli TV station reported that the prisoners had instigated a "noise mutiny" after the ex-president was brought in.

They shouted insults against Saakashvili, who led a campaign against organized crime during his tenure.

In the capital Tbilisi, tens of thousands of people took to the streets on Monday evening and demonstrated for Saakashvili's release.

The head of his MNE party, Nika Melia, spoke of the beginning of a "massive and lasting protest movement."

This will only stop when the ex-president is released from prison and early elections are called in Georgia.

During his presidency from 2004 to 2013, Saakashvili followed a pro-Western course.

In 2018 he was sentenced in absentia to six years in prison for abuse of office.

The Georgian secret service accuses Saakashvili of planning a coup from prison.

The MNE rejects this as a "fairy tale".

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili recently sparked outrage by saying that Saakashvili had "the right to kill himself."

as / AFP

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-11-09

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