Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, imprisoned and on hunger strike, hospitalized

Former Georgian President and opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili, imprisoned and on hunger strike since early October, was transferred to a prison hospital on Monday (November 8th). “In order to avoid the aggravation of [son] state of health and because of an increased risk to his safety, he was transferred from prison no.12 to medical establishment for prisoners no.18 “, announced the penitentiary services in a press release.

The announcement comes shortly before a massive demonstration planned for the evening by supporters of the former president in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, where he planned to require his hospitalization in a civilian establishment, and not a penitentiary. Earlier on Monday, doctors who examined Mikheil Saakashvili pointed out a “high risk of complications” and the “need to treat him urgently in a well-equipped multi-purpose clinic”. According to Georgian human rights envoy Nino Lomjaria, a hospital-prison does not meet these criteria.

Pro-Western president from 2004 to 2013 and now considered the leader of the opposition, Mikheil Saakashvili was jailed on October 1 after returning from eight years of exile, just before municipal elections won by the ruling Dream Party Georgian. The former leader immediately began a hunger strike to protest this detention under a 2018 conviction for “abuse of power”, which he denounces as purely political.

The Georgian opposition, of which Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) is the leading figure, has for its part organized several massive demonstrations to call for the release of the former president and denounce the results of the municipal elections. A charismatic and ambivalent character, renowned for having effectively fought corruption but also widely criticized for the disastrous 2008 war against Russia, Mikheïl Saakachvili left Georgia in 2013.