David J. Smith: If Saakashvili dies, any hope of Georgia joining NATO, EU will die

Ambassador David J. Smith, who has been the US Member of the International Security Advisory Board for Georgia and adviser to the National Security Council of Georgia and the Ministry of Defence of Georgia, says that if former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili dies in prison, it will have a devastating effect on the country’s Euro-Atlantic future. 

Smith says that MEPs and many foreign influential figures have not been allowed to see Saakashvili in a prison in Georgia, who was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1 after eight years in political exile, and has been on hunger strike for 48 days. 

“Saakashvili, leader of Georgia’s 2003 Rose Revolution, the man who dared to think post-Soviet democracy possible, is dying in a Georgian prison hospital. If he dies, the current Georgian government will have snuffed out the last flicker of hope for post-Soviet democracy and human rights. With it will die any hope of Georgia joining NATO or the European Union,” Smith says.

Smith says that Saakashvili, who needed transportation to a high-tech civilian clinic from Rustavi Prison No.12, was transferred to the Gldani Prison No.18 hospital ‘which all the doctors agree is inadequate to treat his condition.’

“When Anna Fotyga, Chairperson of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Defence and Security, and Andrius Kubilius, a Lithuanian MEP, arrived in Tbilisi to visit Saakashvili, the Georgian government denied them access to the prison,” Smith said. 

He stated that ‘unsurprisingly’, many people have taken to the streets in support of Saakashvili and many of the people out to support Saakashvili ‘are also protesting what they believe were rigged local elections on October 2, with runoff contests on October 30. The two matters cannot be separated.’ 

“Reality is that a substantial proportion of Georgian voters perceive recent elections to have been illegitimate and many look to Saakashvili as leader of the opposition. The only way to sort out the numbers is at the ballot box in a free and fair election. For that to happen, Saakashvili must be freed,” he said.