EU issues diplomatic warning over Saakashvili's deteriorating health

EU issues diplomatic warning over Saakashvili's deteriorating health
Tbilisi City Court on February 6 rejected an appeal to release Saakashvili from prison on health grounds. / bne IntelliNews
By bne IntelIiNews February 28, 2023
The EU has issued a formal diplomatic warning to the Georgian authorities over the deteriorating health of jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, reports RFE/RL.
 
The diplomatic demarche was presented to the Georgian justice minister, said EU Ambassador to Georgia Pawel Herczynsk on February 27. 
 
The details of the warning have not been made public, but all 27 EU member states are said to have backed it.
 
The warning comes as Georgia is meant to be working towards fulfilling a set of EU requirements in order to win candidate status to join the bloc. The EU has already criticised recent parliamentary proposals to tighten political control over the central bank and NGOs, which may be judged incompatible with EU membership.
 
On the same day, doctors announced that if Saakashvili continues to lose weight in prison, he will become bedridden and his body will face irreversible damage. 
 
The group of medical experts visited Saakashvili at the Tbilisi clinic where he is currently staying at the invitation of Georgia’s Public Defender.
 
The ex-president, noted doctors, has lost 5.7 kilogrammes since they last saw him in early December. The weight loss has significantly hindered Saakashvili’s movement, and he now requires assistance to move.
 
Saakashvili has alleged that Georgian authorities have been plotting his murder.
 
The ex-president has repeatedly said that medical staff at the clinic where he is staying refuse to treat him and he has sought a transfer for medical care abroad.
 
Previously, Saakashvili's legal team asserted that he was "poisoned" with heavy metals while in custody.
 
Tbilisi City Court on February 6 rejected an appeal to release Saakashvili from prison on health grounds. Following the decision, the ex-president’s legal team announced that they plan to make an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
 
The Georgian Dream government has indicated that it believes Saakashvili's health is better than his doctors are saying, and that there is no reason to release him from prison for hospital treatment abroad.
 
Saakashvili was jailed in 2021 after returning to Georgia secretly on prior convictions in abstentia for abuse of power. He  is currently on trial on separate charges of violently dispersing an anti-government rally in November 2007 and illegal border crossing in 2021.

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