Opponent Alexei Navalny called on the Georgian authorities to release former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, imprisoned in Tbilisi, for treatment. A message with such a message on behalf of a politician appeared in his telegram channel.
Navalny noted that he didn’t know Saakashvili personally, didn’t know any of his staff, and had “rather weak” ideas about Georgian politics, but decided to speak out “as a person and a Christian, because ( the condition of the ex-president of Georgia) is difficult to watch”. He is sure that Saakashvili himself, his family are suffering from what is happening, “and all of Georgia is bad because of what is happening , and there is no good in that even for those who would like to keep Saakashvili in prison until death”.
Alexei Navalny has been in detention since January 2021. He is serving a sentence in penal colony No. 6 in the Vladimir region, where he is regularly sent to a disciplinary cell for minor reasons. Lawyers for the politician say his health is deteriorating.
According to Navalny, he believes “in a happy European future for Georgia”, but what happens to his former president “hits European choice”, “hits development” and “reduces (the country’s) chances of a normal future “.
“I have no doubt that Saakashvili’s opponents have something to remember about him and have something to avenge. <…> It is not necessary to take revenge, although you really want it. All of Georgia will suffer from this revenge. It is a dead end solution, strategically unfavorable to everyone. And cruel, ”added the opponent.
As the politician noted, Saakashvili is “very sick” and “everything said about the simulation is nonsense”, because “the prison sucks anyone’s health and at high speed”.
“Releasing him for a suspended sentence or something like that, which will allow the parties to comply with the law and save face, would be the right thing. It is now Passion Week, then Easter. A good time for a difficult but merciful act for the good of the country and a step towards the reconciliation of the nation. I call on Georgian authorities and all opponents of Mikheil Saakashvili to take this step in the spirit of Christian mercy and peacemaking,” Navalny said.
Saakashvili case
Mikheil Saakashvili served as President of Georgia from 2004 to 2013. Shortly before his presidential powers expired, he left the country, after which several criminal cases were brought against him. In 2015, Saakashvili received Ukrainian citizenship, became a Ukrainian politician and renounced Georgian citizenship.
On the eve of the parliamentary elections in Georgia, in October 2021, Saakashvili returned to his native country and was detained. The former president was sentenced in absentia to six years in prison in the case of the beating of a member of Georgian parliament Valery Gelashvili, as well as three years in prison in the case of the 2006 murder of the bank employee Sandro Girgvliani. In addition, Saakashvili is accused of illegal border crossing, embezzlement of budget funds, abuse of power and destruction of the Imedi television company. The ex-president, in turn, considers himself a political prisoner.
After the detention, Saakashvili went on a hunger strike, which lasted 50 days, after which the politician ended up in intensive care. He has been in the hospital for a few months. In December 2022, American toxicologist and narcologist David Smith told a court hearing that traces of heavy metal poisoning were found in Saakashvili’s body. Colleagues and relatives of the politician suggest he could have been poisoned in prison. In February 2023, Saakashvili appeared in court via video link and showed the extent of his exhaustion, but the court refused to release the politician on health grounds.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said Saakashvili’s trial discredits the country, prevents it from developing relations with partners and from obtaining candidate status for European Union membership. The Head of State blamed the situation on those “who convinced the former president to come, and those who let him in and moreover no longer let him out”.
In February, the European Parliament passed a resolution demanding that Saakashvili be released and allowed to undergo medical treatment abroad. Furthermore, EP MEPs have warned that if the ex-Georgian president dies in prison, the EU legislature will never vote for the country’s membership of the European Union.
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