(Tbilisi) The Georgian government said on Friday it was ready to transfer ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been on hunger strike in a prison-hospital for 50 days, to a military hospital, after his doctors announced his life was in danger.
The former Georgian leader (2004-2013) stopped eating on 1er October to protest his imprisonment upon his return after years of exile. On Thursday, he passed out during a meeting with his lawyers.
“Our proposal is to transfer him to a military hospital,” Justice Minister Rati Bregadze said at a press conference, addressing the Georgian opposition.
According to Mr. Bregadze, the former Georgian president could in particular be hospitalized in a military hospital in the town of Gori, some 90 kilometers east of the capital Tbilisi.
“It is a place where his health and his safety can be protected as much as possible by the state”, he assured, while accusing the opposition of “exploiting the health of Saakashvili for his ridiculous political ends” .
This statement comes as Doctor Guiorgui Grigolia, who examined Mr. Saakachvili after his discomfort on Thursday, told AFP that his “life is threatened” and that he “must be transferred to a civilian clinic without delay” , citing heart and neurological problems in his patient.
These ailments “could become irreversible or even be fatal without appropriate care, but these are impossible in the medical establishment where he is”, judged the practitioner.
Mr. Saakashvili was transferred on November 8 from his prison to a prison hospital, his health deteriorating due to his refusal to eat.
Earlier this week, a medical council formed by the Georgian human rights ombudsperson found the ex-president’s condition critical and requested his transfer to an intensive care unit in a civilian establishment. better equipped.
But the Georgian authorities have so far remained deaf to this call.
“The government is depriving Saakashvili of his right to adequate treatment,” his lawyer, Dito Sadzaglishvili, told AFP.
On November 11, the ex-leader announced that he would end his hunger strike in the event of transfer to a civilian “high-tech clinic”.
Mr Saakashvili’s arrest exacerbated a political crisis following the legislative elections in 2020, narrowly won by the ruling Georgian Dream Party, and which the opposition deemed fraudulent.
Pro-Western president from 2004 to 2013 and now considered the leader of the opposition, Saakashvili returned to Georgia on 1er October after an eight-year exile. Immediately arrested, he was imprisoned under a conviction for “abuse of power”, which he considers to be purely political.
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili caused a scandal by declaring that Mr. Saakashvili “had the right to commit suicide” and that the government had been forced to arrest him because he had refused to give up politics.