Giorgi Gakharia's party For Georgia demands the return of the third president, Mikheil Saakashvili, to prison. According to the member of the parliament, Mikheil Daushvili, during the trial held on December 20, Mikheil Saakashvili was conducting a party meeting live from the ward, giving out assignments and arranging the reunification plan of the National Movement, yet the judge did not stop him, which is a violation.
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“Mikheil Saakashvili, who is charged with exceeding official authority, and who has yet to answer to the court for, including, raiding the then anti-state TV Imedi station using special forces, was conducting a live party meeting from the hospital ward during the court session, giving out orders, arranging the reunification plan of the National Movement, making statements in Ukrainian, that is, he spoke about issues that have nothing to do with the criminal case at hand, which he has no right to do according to the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia, and the judge should have stopped him. Instead, his pre-election rallying was broadcast live, including by Imedi TV raided by him in the past,” stated Daushvili.
The party of former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia believes that the convicted Mikheil Saakashvili, who is a citizen of a foreign country, fully participates in national political processes, which is prohibited by the law, yet Georgian Dream is allowing it.
“This is a campaign event, the purpose of which is, on the one hand, to save the dissolving National Movement for the 2024 elections, and on the other, to intimidate the citizens of Georgia with Saakashvili and his National Movement.
We call on Georgian Dream to stop this pre-election spectacle and stop using the court to achieve its own pre-election PR goals. Do not help the dispersing National Movement reunite. Let the court execute justice. Stop the systematic violation of the Criminal Procedure Code and transfer Mikheil Saakashvili back to the penitentiary facility, at least after New Year’s.
‘‘The government should ensure the adherence to the Georgian legislation and not allow a foreign citizen to interfere and participate in the internal political processes of the country,” said Mikheil Daushvili.
On December 20, Mikheil Saakashvili joined the session held in the Tbilisi City Court on the case of November 7, from Vivamed clinic, and made political statements. The ex-president offered opposition joint political activity and creating a unity committee together with the National Movement. In addition, he said that citizens should mobilize and demand the opening of polling stations abroad.
The Mayor of Tbilisi and the General Secretary of Georgian Dream Kakha Kaladze addressed the demand to return Saakashvili from the clinic back to prison.
“Mikheil Saakashvili was on a diet, he is in excellent shape, he looks good. The relevant agency will probably make a decision,” Kaladze said.
On November 10, the Minister of Justice Rati Bregadze said that the decision to return Saakashvili to the penitentiary institution requires the appropriate recommendation by the doctor.
Mikheil Saakashvili was sentenced to 6 years in prison for wrongfully pardoning those convicted in the cases of beating MP Valery Gelashvili and Sandro Girgvliani murder. The third president of Georgia is also charged with border trespassing, raiding the Imedi TV and November 7 protest, illegally seizing and appropriating Patarkatsishvili’s property, and embezzling 9,024,367 GEL belonging to the Special State Protection Service. The former president pleads not guilty and says that he is politically persecuted and a personal prisoner of Putin.
Due to health decline, Saakashvili has been placed and remains in the Vivamedi clinic, a contractor of the Special Penitentiary Service, since May 12, 2022.
