Georgia on Tuesday insulted Ukraine’s decision to expel its ambassador to Kiev in protest at Tbilisi’s treatment of imprisoned former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who is also a Ukrainian citizen.
On Monday, during a court hearing in Tbilisi, Saakashvili looked very thin and pale and lifting the “t-shirt” he was wearing revealed a torso with exposed ribs and an empty stomach.
In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the same day that he had asked the Foreign Ministry to summon the Georgian ambassador to Kiev and ask him to leave Ukraine within 48 hours for “consultations” with the authorities.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s foreign ministry accused Georgia of torturing 55-year-old Saakashvili, who is imprisoned for “abuse of power”, a charge it refuses to dismiss.
“The Georgian ambassador has been informed that this treatment of Mikheil Saakashvili is absolutely unacceptable. The Georgian authorities must stop torturing this Ukrainian citizen,” the Ukrainian diplomacy said in a statement, offering to transport the former president to Ukraine for “medical therapy”.
Commenting on Kiev’s decision to expel the Georgian ambassador, the leader of Georgia’s ruling “Georgian Dream” party denounced the move as an “insult”.
“But we want to remain friends, even unilaterally, with Ukraine, because it is a country at war,” Irakli Kobakhidze said.
Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly urged Georgia to transfer Saakashvili to Ukraine or a Western country for medical treatment, but to no avail.
Several doctors estimate that Saakashvili, currently the main opposition figure in Georgia, is at risk of death due to the many complications that arose during his detention.
According to Tbilisi, Saakashvili is receiving adequate medical care.
Georgia’s main opposition party, the United National Movement, founded by Saakashvili, has announced a demonstration tonight to demand the release of its founder.
The European Union (EU) and the United States are urging Tbilisi to respect the rights of the former president and to provide him with appropriate medical treatment.
The Council of Europe considers Saakashvili a “political prisoner” and the non-governmental organization Amnesty International (AI) described the treatment of the former Georgian president as “apparent political revenge”.
Saakashvili, president between 2004 and 2013, is imprisoned in Georgia after being tried and convicted in absentia in 2018, and arrested in 2021 after returning from Ukraine, where he became governor of Odessa (south).
His health deteriorated due to repeated hunger strikes. In addition, the former president claims to have been poisoned.
Before entering the prison, Saakashvili, who is 1.95 m tall, weighed 116 kg. In February this year, he already weighed 67 kilograms and his condition has since deteriorated, the Spanish agency EFE reports.
Source: DN
