Vice Speaker Tsulukiani questions ex-Pres Saakashvili’s hospital stay amid parliamentary probe

Thea Tsulukiani, the Vice Speaker of the Georgian Parliament and chair of its commission investigating the former United National Movement government, has questioned whether ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili should remain in hospital care, saying, “we know the answer, but we hope that this will be corrected soon.”

Her comments came on Monday, during a session of the Investigative Commission for the Investigation of the Activities of the Regime and Its Political Officials in 2003-2012, which was hearing testimony from former MP Valeri Gelashvili - a central figure in a 2005 assault case often linked to the Saakashvili administration.

Tsulukiani also accused Saakashvili and his “allies,” including civil society organisations and opposition parties, of attempting to manipulate public memory through curated photo and video material. “They are still trying to erase it, to destroy it, to remove it from memory,” she said. “It is our commission's duty not to allow that.”

She promised the commission’s final report would include extensive visual documentation of alleged abuses. “Future generations will see that this was not the ‘father of the nation’, as he tries to portray himself, but a harmful, evil force.”

Echoing this sentiment, People’s Power faction MP Sozar Subari described Saakashvili’s presidency as a “war against his own people”, in which he was “bitterly defeated”.

Saakashvili, who served as president from 2004 to 2013, was arrested in October 2021 after returning to Georgia from Ukraine. He had been convicted in absentia on charges of abuse of power related to cases dating back to his presidency, including his alleged role in the violent dispersal of protests and the assault on Gelashvili.

Shortly after his arrest, Saakashvili began a hunger strike to protest what he described as politically motivated charges. Amid concerns over his deteriorating health, he was transferred in May 2022 to the Vivamedi clinic in Tbilisi, where he has remained under medical supervision.