Ex-pres. Saakashvili plans to attend a trial on his “life and death”

Imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili on Thursday said he had plans to attend a trial hearing in Tbilisi City Court on Friday, which is scheduled to decide on his release on medical grounds, following the health report by a domestic Empathy centre earlier this week pointing to potential coma and death if Saakashvili was not transported abroad for “proper treatment”. 

Reacting to the trial at 13:00, Saakashvili said in a letter released by his entourage, the process was about his “life and death”. 

The Droa, Girchi More Freedom, Strategy Agmashenebeli and the United National Movement opposition parties gathered in he UNM office earlier on Thursday to discuss plans to “save” the former president. 

Zurab Japaridze from Girchi said after the meeting that “no concrete decisions” had been made and announced another meeting. 

He said Saakahsvili’s life was “in the hands of Bidzina Ivanishvili, “a shadow ruler” of the country [the founder of the Georgian Dream ruling party], and not the prime minister Irakli Garibashvili. 

Saakashvili, a citizen of Ukraine, was arrested in Tbilisi in October 2021 after eight years in self-imposed political exile. 

Currently he is serving his six-year-term for abuse of authority while in office, while three cases involving him are pending.