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Georgian Ex-President Vows To Continue Hunger Strike 'To The Death'

By RFE/RL's Georgian Service November 08, 2021

TBILISI -- Jailed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has vowed to continue his hunger strike "to the death," while the Justice Ministry's Penitentiary Service issued a video over the weekend showing the former president eating unspecified items and drinking from a bottle in the detention center's medical room.

In his statement on Facebook on November 8, Saakashvili called on his supporters and opposition politicians to focus on what he called "stolen elections and returning the government to the Georgian people," instead of focusing on his hunger strike.

"I returned [to Georgia], voluntarily became a hostage, and intended to stay on hunger strike to the death to contribute to liberating our country, to its efforts to preserve its European path...," his statement said.

Meanwhile, on November 5, Justice Minister Rati Bregadze said Saakashvili also consumes porridge in addition to natural juice. A day later, the Penitentiary Service issued a video showing the former president eating some food and drinking what the service said was juice in a medical room in the detention center in Rustavi near Tbilisi, and issued the video to prove it.

Saakashvili then announced that day that he was stopping receiving vitamins and juice in protest.

Saakashvili's supporters and activists of his United National Movement (ENM) party have been protesting against his incarceration outside the prison where Saakashvili, 53, began a hunger strike after being detained within hours of his return from eight years in self-exile abroad on October 1 to campaign for the opposition ahead of nationwide elections.

Saakashvili, who was president from 2004 to 2013, left the country shortly after the presidential election of 2013 and was convicted in absentia in 2018 of abuse of power and seeking to cover up evidence about the beating of an opposition member of parliament.

Saakashvili has said the charges against him are politically motivated.

His lawyers and personal doctor claim that Saakashvili's condition is deteriorating and have demanded that he be transferred to a clinic outside the prison. The government has said if necessary, he will be treated in the clinic of Gldani Penitentiary Institution.

The ENM, Georgia's main opposition force, was outpolled decisively by the ruling Georgian Dream party in the October 3 nationwide municipal and mayoral vote.

The opposition has said that Georgian Dream, founded by billionaire and Saakashvili's rival Bidzina Ivanishvili, rigged the runoff on October 30. Georgian Dream won the mayoral races in the country's five biggest cities as a result of the vote.

Georgia has been plagued by political paralysis since parliamentary elections in 2020.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/georgia- saakashvili-hunger-strike/31551383.html

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.