The former leader had led a first hunger strike to denounce his incarceration, to which he had ended fifty days later, on November 20, after being transferred to a military hospital to receive care.
Le Monde with AFP
MikHeil Saakachvili asks to receive “adequate medical care” in prison. The former President of Georgia, now leader of the opposition, announced, on Monday, February 21 before a Tbilisi court, that it was starting a new hunger strike to protest against its conditions of incarceration.
m. Saakashvili, who led this Caucasus country from 2004 to 2013, was arrested and imprisoned in October to purge a conviction for abuse of power he describes as a policy. He had led a first hunger strike to denounce his incarceration, had ended fifty days later, on November 20, after being transferred to a military hospital to receive care.
political crisis.
The 54-year-old, however, was returned to prison on December 30, despite the concern of his entourage who said it very suffering. An independent physician advice announced in December that the former president was still suffering from serious neurological disorders, according to them ill-treatment suffered in detention.
It is precisely to receive neurological care that Mr. Saakachvili has announced on Monday his new hunger strike, as well as to denounce the authorities’ decision to prevent his personal physician from visiting him in prison.
Mr. Saakachvili’s arrest has exacerbated a political crisis in the legislative elections of 2020, narrowly won by the ruling party, Georgian dream, and that the opposition has judged fraudulent.
Western president for nine years, now considered the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Saakashvili returned to Georgia on the 1st of October after an eight-year-old exile and was immediately arrested .
Human rights defenders accuse the Georgian government of reducing criminal proceedings to sanction political opponents.