Ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who remains in custody and is now in Tbilisi’s Vivamedi clinic, was transferred to intensive care due to deteriorating health, his press secretary Giorgi Chaladze said on Tuesday.
The director of the clinic, Nino Nadiradze, did not confirm the information. “Saakashvili was not transferred, he is in the ward,” she told the Georgian Service of Radio Liberty.
In the morning, the ex-president’s mother, Giuli Alasania, said that the politician lost consciousness at night and that he had a high temperature, about 39 degrees. Information with reference to it was provided by the Novosti-Georgia agency.
A few days ago, Mikheil Saakashvili was diagnosed with coronavirus. The clinic then stated that there was no need to transfer to intensive care, and the disease was in a mild form. According to the Mtavari TV channel, Saakashvili’s new coronavirus test showed a negative result.
In early January of this year, pickets were held in Georgia and in more than 20 countries in support of Saakashvili. Participants called for the politician to be released and given the opportunity to undergo treatment in the EU. Some activists accused the current Georgian authorities of seeking Saakashvili’s death.
- The ex-president of Georgia, who has Ukrainian citizenship, was arrested in Tbilisi in the fall of 2021 after secretly returning to the country. By that time, he had been sentenced in absentia – 6 years in prison in the case of abuse of power. Due to deteriorating health, Saakashvili was transferred to a civilian clinic in Tbilisi. The politician himself and his supporters insist that the deterioration could be caused by poisoning. The Georgian authorities argue that there is no evidence for such conclusions.
- Mikhail Sakashvili calls the criminal prosecution politically motivated.
