Levan Ioseliani, a new public defender of Georgia, on Sunday claimed he had told the country’s imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili his office would maintain “all existing mechanisms”, including the medical council, to monitor his health. 

Ioseliani, who took the post on March 7, said in his social media post he  met with Saakashvili and 13 other inmates undergoing treatment in the Vivemadi civilian clinic in Tbilisi early on Monday, to look into their “specific needs”. 

Saakashvili was placed in the clinic in May 2022, with Tbilisi city court and court of appeals denying his transfer abroad on health grounds earlier this year. 

Saakashvili, now a citizen of Ukraine, was arrested in Tbilisi in October 2021 and is now serving his six-year sentence for abuse of power while in office.