Ex-pres. Saakashvili’s legal team to request use of temporary measure by ECHR

The lawyers of currently imprisoned former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili on Tuesday said they would appeal the Monday’s denial of Tbilisi city court to grant the official’s release on medical grounds to the court of appeals and would also request the use of the temporary measure by the European Court of Human  Rights. 

Commenting on the verdict, Saakashvili claimed the developments were “much more than his fate”. 

“Big geopolitical issues are being resolved and together with Ukraine, all right forces will win and evil will be defeated, but Georgians should not wait with folded hands”, Saakashvili said in his letter sent from the Vivamedi civilian clinic, where he has been receiving treatment since may 2022. 

The trial hearings on granting Saakashvili’s release or the postponement of the rest of his six-year-sentence for abuse of power while in office on medical grounds were launched in December 2022, with the former official’s family and the legal team claiming his health was “utterly complicated”. 

In contrast to the claims, the state officials have pointed to Saakashvili’s engagement in “self-harm” through not-obeying the medical personnel in a bid to facilitate his “illegal release”. 

Saakashvili, who currently holds Ukrainian citizenship, was arrested in Tbilisi in October 2021, after eight years in self-imposed political exile.