Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria says that she is interested in a group of doctors to see ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili in Rustavi Prison No.12 as the former president has been on hunger strike since his detention in Tbilisi on October 1. 

She said that Saakashvili has accepted the group of doctors to examine his health. 

“I had a communication with the leadership of Georgia’s Special Penitentiary Service shortly before and they told me that Saakashvili’s personal doctor presented a written request incorrectly. That is why I asked the agency to contact the doctor and familiarise him with mandatory procedures,” Lomjaria said earlier today. 

The ex-president says he has no plans to suspend the hunger strike. 

Saakashvili was detained a day before Georgian municipal elections. 

He claims he returned to Georgia after eight years in political exile to ‘save the country’ from the Georgian Dream leadership. 

Saakashvili, who is a citizen of Ukraine and chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, wishes to be released from prison before municipal  election run-offs on October 30.

The former president was convicted in Georgia in absentia in 2018 and was sentenced to six years in prison for abuse of authority. 

He has also been charged with four other offences related to the illegal seizure of property, embezzlement, illegal rally dispersal, and illegal border-crossing.