Most of ex-pres. Saakashvili’s diagnoses related to poisoning – Empathy centre head

Mariam Jishkariani, the head of the domestic Empathy rehabilitation centre that had drafted a health report on convicted former president Mikheil Saakashvili, on Monday said the more than 20 health issues mentioned in the report were related to alleged poisoning. 

“In the blood and hair samples [health professionals] have found: mercury, arsenic, thallium, lead, bismuth, barium, cadmium, manganese, small in doses, in correlation with symptoms, indicates intoxication. Most likely, we are dealing with an unknown compound – chemical or radioactive – and detoxification is urgently needed, both relevant examination and treatment cannot and will not be carried out here”, she said. 

The health report drafted by her organization had called on the former president’s transportation abroad for “proper treatment” and warned that the current condition could lead to “coma and death”. 

The Georgian Dream officials, however, say Saakashvili, who is serving his six-year term for abuse of power, had been engaged in “self-harm” to achieve his “illegal release”. 

A trial hearing on the release of Saakashvili on medical grounds or the postponement of his sentence, had been rescheduled to Thursday. 

Saakashvilli, a citizen of Ukraine, was arrested in Tbilisi in October 2021, after eight years in self-imposed political exile.