Lawyer says Saakashvili lost conscious

Lawyer Beka Basilia says that former president Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been on hunger strike for 49 days, is unconscious now as he fell down after the recent meeting with lawyers and was taken away by the prison staff. 

 

Basilia says that he does not know how Saakashvili feels now. 

 

A medical council composed of eight health experts under Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria said yesterday that Saakashvili’s health condition is ‘critical,’  and he needs an ‘immediate transfer’ to a multi-profile, well-equipped civilian clinic. 

 

However, the ruling party head Irakli Kobakhidze called the conclusion ‘fake.’ 

 

Saakashvili was convicted in Georgia in absentia back in 2018 for abuse of power and was sentenced to six years in prison. 

 

He has also been charged with five other offences, including embezzlement, abuse of authority, illegal rally dispersal, illegal seizure of property and illegally crossing the border. 

 

The former president, who is now a citizen of Ukraine, claims that he returned after eight years in political exile to remove the Georgian Dream from power.

 

Saakashvili has been on hunger strike since his arrest in Tbilisi on October 1. 

 

He is demanding a transfer to a civil hospital. 

 

However, the government officials believe that Saakashvili is ‘staging a show’ with his hunger strike and has plans to cause unrest while in a civil hospital.