Five former US ambassadors to Georgia call for Saakshvili’s “life-saving” treatment abroad

Five former ambassadors of the United States to Georgia, William Courtney, Ian Kelly, Richard Miles, John Tefft and Kenneth Yalowitz, on Monday urged the Georgian authorities to allow the “life-saving” treatment of Mikheil Saakashvili, the imprisoned third president of Georgia, abroad. 

 

The letter released by the former diplomats said the changes ensured by the 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia under Saakashvili had benefited “ Georgia’s democracy and prospects for the future”, claiming his “reforms reduced corruption, improved public services, and lifted the economy. At the same time, Saakashvili’s legacy was polarizing”. 

 

They noted in  2018 while abroad, Saakashvili was tried and convicted in absentia for abuse of power when he was President and was sentenced to six years in prison for the beating of an opposition politician in 2005 by police special forces. “He is now on trial for violently dispersing an anti-government rally in 2007”, the letter said. Pointing to the former official’s arrest in October 2021 after he returned to Georgia from exile, the former ambassadors cited Amnesty International as saying that Saakashvili’s health had “sharply deteriorated” while in custody. 

 

“He has lost over 110 pounds and developed ‘serious psychological, orthopedic and gastrointestinal health conditions.’ Last December, forensic medical examiners concluded that his condition was ‘severe,’ and he needed ‘urgent treatment’ unavailable in Georgia”, they noted. The letter noted in May the European Court of Human Rights rejected Saakashvili’s transfer abroad on health grounds, adding the accreditation of Polish medical personnel to examine him in Georgia “ought to proceed soon”. 

 

“On July 2, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky ‘called on Georgian authorities to hand over Ukrainian citizen Mikheil Saakashvili … No government in Europe has the right to execute people.’ 

 

Saakashvili had headed the executive committee of Ukraine’s National Reform Council”, said the diplomats. 

 

They claimed the controversies and polarization over Saakashvili’s topic threaten the country’s Euro-Atlantic integration. 

 

“Prospects that Georgia can join the European Union and NATO are threatened by this crisis. The country has an opportunity to grow closer to NATO and to achieve candidacy status for EU membership, which Moldova and Ukraine have received. Overwhelming majorities of Georgians support these aspirations. Mistreatment of Saakashvili could push Georgia further from the West, not closer”, they said. 

 

“If Saakashvili were to perish in prison, sanctions may be stronger or more likely. His death could also put in severe jeopardy EU and NATO consideration of Georgia’s potential for membership”, the letter added. In response to the letter, Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party said, it was a “feeble attempt to overshadow the ECHR’s rejection” on Saakashvili’s foreign treatment, adding the letter “has no value”. 

 

Archil Talakvadze, the Vice Parliament Speaker, reiterated Saakashvili had been engaged in “self-harm” to “escape justice”, urging the former official to eat properly and not to “deliberately damage” own health.