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Saakashvili emaciated in custody
Photo: Zurab Kurtsikidze / EPA-EFE
Despite his poor health, Mikhail Saakashvili remains in prison.
The decision by a court in the capital Tbilisi on Monday came just days after lawyers for the former Georgian president called for his six-year prison sentence to be suspended and for treatment abroad.
The reason: According to his doctors, he is at risk of dying from his massive weight loss.
According to his lawyer, the Georgian ex-president has lost around 40 kilos since his imprisonment.
According to doctors, he suffers from several neurological diseases and muscle atrophy that are acutely threatening his life.
According to a US toxicologist, tests also indicate "heavy metal poisoning" in the 55-year-old after his imprisonment, including with mercury and arsenic.
Last year, Saakashvili protested against his imprisonment with a 50-day hunger strike, which human rights organizations criticize as purely politically motivated.
The hunger strike had further weakened him.
At the end of December, Saakashvili, badly marked, was connected via video link to a court hearing from the prison hospital.
The Georgian authorities have always assured that Saakashvili is being adequately cared for.
The former president's lawyer described Monday's decision by the Georgian court as "illegal".
Saakashvili's brother Giorgi said he would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The Council of Europe's human rights organization, Amnesty International, the EU and the US have called on the Georgian government to guarantee Saakashvili's basic rights and provide him with adequate medical treatment.
The pro-Western reformer Saakashvili was arrested in October 2021 on charges of abuse of office when he returned to his homeland after a long exile, which he spent mainly in Ukraine.
In Ukraine, he was President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's reform commissioner and governor of the Odessa region, among other things.
Saakashvili was President of Georgia from 2004 to 2013.
During his tenure, the Caucasus War in 2008 between Tbilisi and Moscow over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in which Georgia was defeated.
Since then, Russia has maintained a strong military presence in both regions.
Like Ukraine, Georgia is striving for EU membership and is also applying for NATO membership.
dop/AFP
