Zelensky again calls for “rescue” of imprisoned Saakashvili
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has once again urged the South Caucasus Republic of Georgia to rescue its former head of state, Mikhail Saakashvili, who is ill in prison. The 55-year-old, who is a Ukrainian citizen, should be handed over to Ukraine for the necessary treatment and care, Zelensky said in his daily video message circulated in Kiev on Monday evening. He called on the international community not to ignore the situation but to “save this man”. “No government in Europe has the right to execute people, life is a fundamental European value.”
Zelensky had repeatedly claimed that Saakashvili was being “slowly killed” in Georgian custody. He has also spoken of a “disgrace” and “de facto public execution of a person in 21st century Europe”. This time he instructed Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to convey the Ukrainian government’s protest to the Georgian ambassador to Ukraine and to urge him to leave the country so that the diplomat could hold talks in Tbilisi.
Saakashvili, who has lost a lot of weight, had previously been connected to a court hearing via video from the hospital. The images of the emaciated politician were shared on social networks. His brother David Saakashvili said the ex-president continued to lose weight. He faces death. He also suggested his brother might have been poisoned. The family has been asking for treatment for a long time. There has been no confirmation from the authorities that his condition is life-threatening or that the allegations are true.
Despite an arrest warrant, the ex-president returned to Georgia in 2021 and was arrested. Saakashvili accuses the country, which is also aspiring to join the EU, of not supporting Ukraine clearly enough in times of war. Georgia, which had received massive US support under Saakashvili, lost a brief war against Russia in 2008, losing control of its breakaway territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the process. To Zelensky’s annoyance, the country is not supporting the West’s sanctions against Moscow.
Saakashvili was President of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia from 2004 to 2013. He pushed through pro-Western reforms. After being voted out, he was sentenced in absentia to prison for corruption and incitement to cause bodily harm.