TBILISI, May 12. /TASS/. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has dismissed a request from former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's lawyers to release him so that he can receive medical care abroad, Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze told a briefing on Friday.
"Today, the decision of the Strasbourg court was issued, according to which convict Mikhail Saakashvili in the case Saakashvili v. Georgia was denied transer to Warsaw. At the same time, the state is not obligated to transfer him to another medical facility within the country," the minister said.
Bregadze also added that at this stage, Saakashvili will continue undergoing medical treatment at Vivamed clinic and there is no need to transfer him to another medical facility or return him to a penitentiary institution.
Saakashvili's lawyers decided to appeal to the ECHR after two separate courts, the Tbilisi City Court on February 6, and the Tbilisi Court of Appeals on March 2, refused to postpone his imprisonment on health grounds. Doctors and experts, including from abroad, testified as witnesses at more than a dozen hearings, stating that the former president had multiple diseases. The position of Georgian authorities is that Saakashvili is faking his illnesses.
Saakashvili secretly arrived in Georgia a day before municipal elections in October 2021, was arrested and placed in prison in the city of Rustavi. He went on a hunger strike claiming to be a political prisoner. When his health deteriorated, he was transferred to a prison hospital and later - to a military hospital. In December 2021, he was transferred back to prison but in May 2022 was placed in the Tbilisi-based Vivamed private clinic, where he has been staying ever since.
In Georgia, Saakashvili is facing four criminal cases and has already been sentenced to three and six years behind bars in two of them. On October 20, 2022, he faced charges of illegally crossing into Georgia, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.