TBILISI, November 14. /TASS/. Georgia’s former President Mikhail Saakashvili is undergoing treatment and feels well, Manana Elefterova, prison hospital chief physician, said on Sunday.
"Patient Mikhail Saakashvili has been undergoing treatment in establishment No 18 (prison hospital - TASS) since November 8, 2021. He is under keen medical supervision. All necessary laboratory tests are being conducted and he is receiving prescribed medicines. His life is out of danger," the press service of Georgia’s Special Penitentiary Service quoted her as saying.
Saakashvili’s personal doctor Nikoloz Kipshidze said on Saturday that his health condition had deteriorated to an extent that he cannot get out of the bed.
Saakashvili was detained in Georgia on October 1 after his return to the country shortly ahead of the first round of municipal elections. He is currently being kept in prison in the city of Rustavi, where he went on a hunger strike as he claims to be a political prisoner. On November 8, Georgia’s Justice Ministry transferred the politician to a prison hospital on the outskirts of Tbilisi, but Saakashvili and his lawyers opposed it firmly and insisted that he should go to a private hospital. On November 11, Saakashvili said he would stop the hunger strike if he was admitted to a private hospital for rehabilitation.
Saakashvili was Georgia’s president from January 2004 to November 2013 and left the country several days before the expiration of his office term. Immediately after it, four criminal cases were initiated against him and verdicts were pronounced on two of them. On October 20, he was charged with illegal border crossing, which may entail imprisonment of up to five years. In the recent time, Saakashvili, who holds a Ukrainian passport, has been living in Ukraine.