TBILISI | Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, now leader of the opposition, announced on Monday that he was starting a new hunger strike to protest against his prison conditions, following one carried out last year during 50 days.
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“I am starting a hunger strike,” Saakashvili told a Tbilisi court, asking to receive “adequate medical care” in prison.
Mr. Saakashvili, who led this Caucasian country from 2004 to 2013, was arrested and then imprisoned in October to serve a sentence for abuse of power which he describes as political.
Last year, he led a first hunger strike to denounce his imprisonment, ending it after 50 days, on November 20, after being transferred to a military hospital for treatment.
The 54-year-old ex-leader, however, was returned to prison on December 30, despite the concern of those around him who say he is very unwell.
An independent board of doctors said in December that the former president still suffered from serious neurological disorders, which they said were the result of ill-treatment suffered in detention.
It was precisely to receive neurological care that Saakashvili announced his new hunger strike on Monday, as well as to denounce the authorities’ decision to prevent his personal doctor from visiting him in prison.
Mr Saakashvili’s arrest has exacerbated a political crisis following the 2020 parliamentary elections, narrowly won by the ruling Georgian Dream party, and which the opposition has deemed fraudulent.
A pro-Western president from 2004 to 2013 and now considered the leader of the opposition, Saakashvili returned to Georgia on October 1 after an eight-year exile and was immediately arrested.
Human rights defenders accuse the Georgian government of using criminal prosecutions to punish political opponents.