Patriarchate requests ex-president Saakashvili to suspend hunger strike

Patriarchate’s secretary Mikael Botkoveli visited Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili in Rustavi No.12 prison earlier today and requested on behalf of Patriarch Ilia II to suspend the hunger strike. 

 

Saakashvili went on hunger strike on October 1, shortly after he was detained in Tbilisi. 

 

“Hunger strike is not a christian behaviour,” Botkoveli said. 

 

The ex-president was arrested a day before Georgian municipal elections. 

 

He said he returned after eight years in political exile to ‘save the country’ from the Georgian Dream leadership and encouraged voters to help the UNM win the municipal elections, which would be a step forward to early parliamentary elections.  

 

Saakashvili was convicted in Georgia in absentia back in 2018 for abuse of authority in two separate cases and was sentenced to six years in prison.  

 

He has already been charged with four other cases which concern illegal take-over of property, embezzlement, illegal rally dispersal and illegally crossing the border.