The United National Movement (UNM) party of Georgia, the party of former President Mikhail Saakashvili, announced Tuesday that it is suspending its activity in Parliament as a form of boycott until the former president is released.
The deputies have explained in a statement that they will work in «emergency mode» while suspending their parliamentary work as a form of protest. In addition, the main leaders of the party and their supporters have demonstrated outside the home of the country’s Prime Minister, Irakli Garibashvili, in the Vake district of Tbilisi, the capital.
However, deputies of the Georgian Dream party faction have asserted that this is a «judicial decision» and asked to refrain from intervening in this matter: «it would be better to ask Saakashvili to eat instead of spending so much money from the ‘lobbies'».
«If someone is really interested in Saakashvili’s state of health that’s what they should do, tell him to eat food with calories. If someone wants to run the risk of protecting himself from Justice, this trick will not work,» he pointed out, according to information from the Civil news portal.
Saakashvili himself has claimed that «it is time to stand up and fight». «Nothing can break me!», he asserted before clarifying that it is time to «join forces». «Let us not allow Georgia to be handed over to Russia,» he said.
His words come after the Georgian judiciary refused on Monday to release the former president despite his delicate state of health following a hunger strike and the state’s refusal to provide him with medical assistance.
The case of Saakashvili – who has Ukrainian nationality – has gained notoriety precisely because the Ukrainian Parliament has asked Georgia and the European Union to transfer the former president so that he can receive medical treatment abroad.
Saakashvili, convicted of abuse of power during his term in office, was arrested in October 2021 after eight years outside the country. Since then, he has announced several hunger strikes and his family has demanded that he be transferred to a clinic for treatment.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
