Special Penitentiary Service dismisses reports on calling emergency service for Saakashvili

The Georgian Special Penitentiary Service has dismissed reports by opposition-minded TV channels that they have called an emergency service for the arrested former president of Georgia, Milkheil Saakashvili, who has been on hunger strike in Rustavi Prison No.12 since October 1. 

The Special Penitentiary Service says that the reports are incorrect. 

Saakashvili is demanding his transportation to a civil clinic to receive treatement, as well as members of opposition parties. 

They say only a civil clinic has all the equipment which are necessary to properly assess Saakashvili’s health condition and ensure relevant  treatment. 

A member of the United National Movement opposition party, Khatia Dekanoidze, stated earlier today that Saakashvili’s life ‘is at risk’. 

The Georgian Justice Ministry has several times offered Saakashvili to move to a Prison No.18 hospital which is ‘well-equipped.’ However, Saakashvili declined the offer.

The Georgian government says that Saakashvili has plans to cause unrest if he is brought to a civil clinic. 

Saakashvili, now a citizen of Ukraine who chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, was arrested in a flat in Tbilisi on October 1, ahead of the October 2 municipal elections. 

Saakashvili claims that he returned after eight years in political exile to remove the Georgian Dream government from power via snap parliamentary elections.

 He was convicted in 2018 in Georgia in absentia for abuse of authority and has also been charged with four other crimes, including illegally crossing the border from Ukraine to Georgia.