Nino Nadiradze, the head of the Vivamdi civilian clinic in Tbilisi, where imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili has been receiving treatment since May 2022, told the court on Friday her personnel had been living “in hell” over the past nine months due to the pressure on them being exerted by Saakashvili’s entourage. 

“From the first days there has been pressure, attempts to hamper our activities, in fact all opinions expressed by us, diagnoses made, treatment measures prescribed and diagnostic studies have been constantly distrusted. Not only distrust, [their actions] have been manifested by a cascade of insults, pressure on individual doctors”, Nadiradze said. 

She claimed Saakashvili was “well-aware” he would not be released without a proper excuse, and had been engaged in “self-harm” over the months, refusing to follow the doctors’ instructions to create such an excuse. 

Nadiradze said his entourage was also acting to “further complicate” the former official’s health through not-providing proper food and “actual encouragement” to disobey doctors. 

A trial hearing is ongoing in Tbilisi city court on granting Saakashvili’s release on medical grounds or the postponement of the rest of his six-year-sentence for abuse of power while in office. 

The trial hearings were launched in December 2022.