TBILISI – Georgia’s health minister on Thursday dismissed a recommendation by doctors to hospitalise jailed ex-president and opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili who has been on hunger strike for three weeks.
President of the Caucasus country from 2004 to 2013, Saakashvili was arrested and imprisoned upon his return from exile in Ukraine on October 1.
The 53-year-old founder of Georgia’s main opposition force, the United National Movement, immediately went on hunger strike to protest what he calls a politically motivated prosecution. He has vowed to keep fasting as long as he remains in detention.
On Tuesday, Saakashvili was examined by a council of medics who recommended that he be hospitalized. The examination came after the opposition leader’s doctor, Nikoloz Kipshidze, expressed concern over the risk of irreversible damage to Saakashvili’s health.
But Health Minister Ekaterine Tikaradze told journalists Thursday that Saakashvili’s health condition “is stable, pretty satisfactory and there is currently no need to hospitalize him.”
She said Saakashvili has access to medical services in custody.
In 2018, Saakashvili was convicted in absentia on two counts of abuse of office and sentenced to six years in prison.
He is set to face trials in two more cases of abuse of office and on charges of an illegal crossing of Georgia’s state border.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that the ex-president entered the country on September 28 by hiding in a truck with dairy products to bypass border control.
The flamboyant pro-Western reformer — who still commands a loyal following as the country’s foremost opposition leader — has denied wrongdoing.
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili sparked an uproar in Georgia when he recently said that the government had to arrest Saakashvili because he had refused to quit politics.
In what was the largest anti-government demonstration in a decade, tens of thousands of Georgians massed in the streets of the capital Tbilisi last week, demanding Saakashvili’s release.
The prosecution of Saakashvili and many of his allies has prompted concern in the West.
