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Saakashvili is not a political prisoner, Georgian president says

He does not meet the criteria of either a political prisoner or an innocent victim, Salome Zourabichvili said

TBILISI, November 3. /TASS/. Former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who is serving a prison sentence in the city of Rustavi, is not a political prisoner, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said in a televised address to the nation on Wednesday.

"The former president [Saakashvili] does not meet the criteria of either a political prisoner or an innocent victim. He came to the country voluntarily and illegally. The purpose of his arrival was destabilization," the incumbent president said.

Zourabichvili has emphasized that she will never pardon former President Mikhail Saakashvili and that she will no longer be discussing the issue.

"My position about granting a pardon to the former president [Saakashvili] is unequivocal and unchangeable - no and never. I will never come back to this issue again," she said in a televised address to the nation on Wednesday.

Nevertheless, she urged the Justice Ministry to view Saakashvili as "a special prisoner" and to take care of his health so that his deteriorating condition cannot bring about speculation or the attempts to destabilize the country.

On October 1, Saakashvili was apprehended in Georgia, where he had come back prior to the first round of local elections. The former president is serving a prison sentence in the city of Rustavi, where he went on hunger strike, as he considers himself a political prisoner. Georgia’s Justice Ministry has repeatedly suggested transferring the politician to a prison hospital, but Saakashvili and his lawyers oppose it firmly and insist that he should go to a private hospital.

The ex-president left Georgia in 2013. Later, four criminal cases were brought against him, and on two of them, he was sentenced to three and six years in jail in absentia. On October 20, Saakashvili was charged with illegal border crossing, which may entail imprisonment of up to five years. Recently, the politician has been a resident of Ukraine and holds the Ukrainian citizenship. Earlier, the Georgian authorities underlined that Saakashvili would be arrested upon arrival, as two court rulings against him had come into effect.

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Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili

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