Moldovan president joins Zelenskyy’s call to transfer Saakashvili abroad

Moldovan president Maia Sandu on Wednesday expressed her worries about “life-threatening complications” of Georgia’s currently imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili and stressed she shared the position of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to transfer the former president abroad for treatment. 

“I am worried about Saakashvili’s life-threatening complications stemming from his detention conditions. Moldova joins Zelenskyy’s call to the Georgian government to allow the former president to go abroad for treatment to safeguard his health”, she tweeted. 

Saakashvili, a citizen of Ukraine who chaired the executive committee of the Ukrainian national reforms council, was arrested in Tbilisi in October 2021 on his clandestine return after eight years to help his United National Movement party retake office as he said via elections. 

However, the Georgian Dream authorities claim the former official had plans to spark unrest in the country and later “drag” Georgia into Russia-Ukraine conflict, with Ukraine strongly dismissing the claims. 

Saakashvili and his entourage say that the former’s health had deteriorated much while in custody and is in “urgent” need of treatment abroad, while the authorities say the former official is engaged in “self-harm” to leave prison.