Special Penitentiary Service dismisses reports on mobilisation at Rustavi prison

The Georgian Special Penitentiary Service has dismissed reports that there is a special mobilization of law enforcers at Rustavi Prison No.12, where former president Mikheil Saakashvili is serving his sentence. 

The agency says that they requested the Interior Ministry on October 1, the day when Saakashvili was arrested in Tbilisi,to ensure further safety at the prison. 

“In the videos released (by opposition-minded channels) the ordinary rotation of law enforcers takes place,” said the Special Penitentiary Service. 

Saakashvili, who is a citizen of Ukraine and currently chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, was arrested in Tbilisi a day before Georgian municipal elections. 

He says he returned to the country after eight years in political exile, ‘to save Georgia’ from the ‘pro-Russian rule’ of the Georgian Dream government. 

In 2018, the Tbilisi City Court twice tried Saakashvili in absentia and sentenced him to six years in prison for abuse of power.