Acting Polish ambassador summoned at Georgian foreign office over alleged smuggling of ex-Pres. Saakashvili’s bio sample

Acting Polish ambassador was on Monday summoned at Georgia’s foreign office following the release of footage by the Georgian Special Penitentiary Service on Friday, which reportedly depicted a visiting Polish professional trying to smuggle the currently imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili’s bio sample out of the Vivamedi civilian clinic through his shoe, where the former official has been receiving treatment since May 2022. 

 

The Georgian agency said the Polish doctor’s action had “contradicted both medical ethics and legal norms”, and was “surprising” as he had been allowed to take the samples officially. 

 

Justice Minister Rati Bregadze said on Sunday the doctor had “admitted” he had attempted to smuggle the sample out via his sock, calling on the public to refrain from making “provocative and misleading” statements that the Polish professional could have his own thing in his shoe. 

 

The Polish professionals visited the former Georgian president in the clinic on July 12.