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Mon, Dec 16, 2024 | Jumada al-Aakhirah 15, 1446 | DXB
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Georgia’s jailed ex-leader Saakashvili’s condition serious: Doctors
Former president has been in hospital since last year after refusing food for 50 days to protest his detention
People join a rally in support of Mikheil Saakashvili near the government building in Tbilisi, Georgia. — Reuters
The health of Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s jailed ex-president, is deteriorating due to drastic weight loss, his doctors said on Wednesday, following international calls for his release.
The 55-year-old pro-Western reformer was arrested in 2021, days after secretly returning to the Caucasus country from exile.
He has been in hospital since last year after refusing food for 50 days to protest his detention, which rights groups say is politically motivated.
Once a jovial, larger-than-life personality, Saakashvili has become a shadow of his former self, his lawyers and doctors say, repeatedly sounding the alarm about his deteriorating health.
On Wednesday, the opposition politician’s doctor, Tamar Davarashvili, told a news conference that Saakashvili could soon end up in intensive care.
“The patient’s condition is becoming serious,” she said.
“His weight and body mass are extremely low,” she said, adding that the “next stage could be an intensive care unit”.
She said that Saakashvili — who weighed 115 kilogrammes when he was jailed in October, 2021 — now weighs just 67 kilogrammes.
Davarashvili described him as weak and bedridden and said he suffered pain in his limbs.
The news conference came following numerous calls from the West for the Georgian government to release Saakashvili on humanitarian grounds.
Last week, more than 570 members of the European Parliament passed a resolution demanding that the Georgian government release Saakashvili and allow him to receive medical treatment abroad.
“The way former President Mikheil Saakashvili is being treated is a litmus test of the Georgian government’s commitment to European values,” the resolution said.
The leaders of Poland, Ukraine, and Moldova have made similar calls.
In early February, a court in Georgia rejected Saakashvili’s bid to get his six-year sentence for alleged abuse of office deferred over poor health.
A group of US-based doctors have said Saakashvili is suffering from serious neurological, gastrointestinal, and orthopaedic conditions.
They said his health deterioration was a result of “torture” in custody.
One of the doctors, toxicologist David Smith, also said tests had revealed Saakashvili had been exposed to poisoning by heavy metals while in custody.
Saakashvili was convicted in absentia for abuse of office and sentenced to six years in prison in 2018.
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