Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili began a hunger strike on Wednesday in protest after a Tbilisi court refused to allow his presence while deciding whether or not to suspend his sentence on humanitarian grounds and allow him to go abroad for treatment.
«Today my most basic right to attend my own trial has been neglected. This is a violation of all Georgian and international norms, so I am forced to resort to an extreme form of protest, a hunger strike,» Saakashvili announced in a letter.
«I am aware of all the risks given my current state of health, but I will be on hunger strike until I have solid guarantees to at least include a video link to my trial. There is a limit to all mockery and humiliation,» the former Georgian president has insisted, the daily ‘Rezonansi’ reports.
This is the third time that Saakashvili resorts to hunger strike as a form of pressure, after those of October 2021 – when he was arrested after eight years in exile – and February 2022.
Saakashvili was sentenced to three years in prison in connection with the murder of banker Sandro Girgvliani and another six years for being behind the beating of MP Valeri Gelashvili in 2005. He is also under investigation for alleged abuse of power during anti-government protests in 2007.
Saakashvili’s relatives and defense are insisting that Georgian authorities allow his transfer abroad so that he can be treated for his ailments, especially after his lawyer, Shalva Khachapuridze, denounced a few weeks ago that traces of arsenic had been found in a toxicological analysis.
