TBILISI, November 8./TASS/. Former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has been moved from a prison in the Georgian city of Rustavi to a prison hospital in the Gldani district on the outskirts of Tbilisi, the Special Penitentiary Service of the Georgian Justice Ministry said in a report circulated on Monday.
"Due to the deteriorating health and increased threats, inmate Mikhail Saakashvili was moved from prison facility 12 (Rustavi prison - TASS) to a health facility for convicts and inmates N18 (Gldani prison hospital - TASS)", it said.
Earlier, Saakashvili’s mother Giuli Alasania told journalists that her son had been airlifted by helicopter from the Rustavi prison to an unknown location. Local media reported that he would be airlifted to a military hospital in the city of Gori. On Monday, a council of physicians decided to request the Justice Ministry to hospitalize Saakashvili, who had gone on a hunger strike.
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 a 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 opposed it firmly and insisted that he should be taken 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 Ukrainian citizenship.