Son of late president Shevardnadze: Saakashvili’s rights should be ensured

Son of the late, second president of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze, Paata Shevardnadze says that the rights of the third president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, who overthrew Shevardnadze’s government via a peaceful revolution back in 2003, should be ensured. 

Paata Shevardnadze says that Saakashvili was the president elected by the Georgian people and he should be treated with dignity. 

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.