The former president has been in prison since his return to the country, on October 1, after an eight-year-old exile. His party arrived second in the municipal elections.
Le Monde with AFP
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Georgia, Thursday, October 14, to claim the release of former President Mikheil Saakachvili, incarcerated since the beginning of October and on hunger strike.
President of Georgia between 2004 and 2013, Mr. Saakashvili, 53, was arrested on the 1st of an eight-year-old exile to purge a sentence of six years in prison for “abuse of power”. Its imprisonment is part of the political crisis that has been shaking Georgia since the last legislative elections of October 2020, narrowly won by the ruling party, Georgian dream, founded by Bidzina Ivanichvili billionaire, the great rival of M . Saakachvili.
Since then, the training of the latter, the UNI National Movement (MNU), obtained 30.6% of the votes in the municipal elections of October 3, compared to 46.7% for Georgian dreams. The opposition parties, however, gathered 53% of the votes and denounced massive fraud. In the main cities, including the capital, Tbilisi, second rounds will be held on October 30 between power candidates and those of the MNU.
Nearly 50,000 people in Tbilisi, according to an estimate
“Liberate Saakashvili!”, “No to the political persecution!”, I could read on the Brandie banners by the protesters in Tbilisi, who were also provided with portraits of the former head of state. According to an estimate of a correspondent of the France-Press agency (AFP), at least 50,000 people gathered on the place of freedom, in the center of the city. Throughout the day, convoys vehicles have moved to Tbilisi the protesters who gathered at the call of Mr. Saakachvili and his supports, depending on the images broadcast by television channels.
In a message read to the protesters by his lawyer, Mr. Saakashvili called on his country “a lighthouse of democracy” and to “save Georgia through national unit and reconciliation”. The former president rejects this conviction that he considers politics and said he started a hunger strike to protest his incarceration. Doctors expressed concern about his state of health.
Sign of anxiety aroused by the arrest of Mr. Saakashvili, the United States had called the last week Tbilisi to ensure that the opponent “benefited from a fair treatment, in accordance with the law. Georgian and international commitments of Georgia in terms of human rights “. Mr Saakachvili was deprived of his Georgian nationality and has a Ukrainian passport since 2016. Before returning to his homeland, he lived several years in Ukraine, where he was head of the Executive Committee of the National Council of Reform.
Last week, the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, had claimed that Mr. Saakachvili could return to Ukraine, but the Georgian government has so far shown firm on this issue. The Prime Minister Irakli Garibachvili, thus dropped last week: “Person on earth is able to convince us to release Saakashvili”, who will “purge his sentence”.