Moldovan president calls for transfer of ex-pres. Saakashvili to an “appropriate hospital”

Moldovan president Maia Sandu on Sunday called for the transfer of convicted former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili to an “appropriate clinic” to “save his life”, following a health report by a domestic NGO Empathy that current condition of the former top official may lead to coma and death. 

“Deeply concerned by the rapidly deteriorating state of health of Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili. Every human life is priceless and the gravity of the situation requires immediate transfer of Saakashvili to an appropriate hospital to save his life”, Sandu tweeted. 

Saakashvili, the third president of Georgia, was arrested in Tbilisi in October 2021 after eight years in self-imposed political exile. 

Holding Ukrainian citizenship and chairing the executive committee of the Ukrainian national reforms council before his detention, Saakashvili is now serving his six-year-term for abuse of power while in office, while three other cases are pending. 

His family and lawyers say that a 49-day hunger strike and “inappropriate conditions and treatment” had led to “very deteriorated health”, with the former official in “utmost need” of transportation abroad for treatment.