Georgia ex-president Saakashvili says abused in jail, fears for all times

TBILISI – Georgia’s jailed ex-president and opposition chief Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been on starvation strike for weeks, stated on Monday he feared for his life after jail guards assaulted him.

Saakashvili, who served as president between 2004 and 2013, was arrested on October 1 on his return from exile in Ukraine.He has refused meals for 39 days to protest towards his imprisonment, which he says is politically motivated.His jailing has exacerbated a political disaster that erupted final yr after the opposition denounced fraud in parliamentary elections received narrowly by the ruling Georgian Dream occasion.The guards “abused me verbally, punched me on the neck, dragged me on the ground by my hair”, Saakashvili stated in a letter launched by means of his lawyer, including that his controversial switch to a jail hospital was “aimed at killing” him.He was moved on Monday to a jail hospital that rights officers say fails to make sure his correct therapy.The flamboyant pro-Western reformer’s arrest provoked the most important anti-government demonstrations in a decade.Chanting Saakashvili’s identify, about 40,000 demonstrators flooded on Monday night into the central Freedom Square within the Georgian capital Tbilisi, AFP reporters noticed.”A mass, permanent protest movement begins in Georgia and will not stop until Mikheil Saakashvili is set free and snap elections are called,” Nika Melia, the chairman of Saakashvili’s United National Movement occasion, advised the gang.”We will not disperse, our protest will be relentless and peaceful, we will not let the regime provoke us to a civil confrontation.”Protesters then marched by means of downtown Tbilisi in the direction of the prime minister’s workplace, vowing to blockade the constructing.Prime Minister Irakli “Garibashvili will not be able to leave or enter his office”, Melia stated.One of the demonstrators, businessman Niko Mgeladze, 46, stated: “Saakashvili is a victim of political vendetta, we will not stop until he is liberated.”- Ukraine’s protest -The pro-opposition Mtavari TV station aired footage of a whole lot of riot police being deployed outdoors authorities buildings.On Monday morning, docs who examined Saakashvili stated he was “at high risk of multi-systemic complications and needs to be urgently treated in a high-tech clinic”.Georgia’s rights ombudswoman Nino Lomjaria stated the jail hospital failed to fulfill the docs’ standards.Doctors have stated Saakashvili faces an imminent threat of demise as he has an underlying blood dysfunction that makes his starvation strike significantly harmful.Ukraine protested towards Saakashvili’s switch to a jail hospital, saying the transfer “creates additional risks”.”We call on the Georgian side to transfer Mikheil Saakashvili to a civilian medical facility without delay,” the overseas ministry stated in a be aware of protest despatched to Tbilisi.Saakashvili, who was stripped of his Georgian passport in 2015, is now a nationwide of Ukraine, the place he headed — till his arrest — a authorities company steering reforms.’RIGHT TO SUICIDE’Saakashvili’s legal professionals have expressed issues that his “security will not be guaranteed in the prison hospital where convicted criminals are employed as paramedics”.The unbiased Pirveli TV channel reported that inmates within the jail hospital staged a loud protest towards Saakashvili, shouting profanities on the man who led a relentless marketing campaign towards organised crime throughout his tenure as president.Lomjaria, who visited Saakashvili in custody, stated he was moved to a jail hospital towards his will and was misled that he was to be transferred to a civilian clinic.Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili sparked an uproar not too long ago by saying that Saakashvili “has the right to commit suicide” and that the federal government had been compelled to arrest him as a result of he refused to give up politics.