The Tbilisi City Court refused to satisfy the petition of Mikheil Saakashvili's lawyers, who asked to release the former president from punishment or postpone its execution. This is reported by the First Channel of Georgia. The application has been pending since December.
Saakashvili returned to his homeland in October 2021 and was immediately arrested, since back in 2018 a Georgian court sentenced him in absentia to six years in prison, finding him guilty of abuse of power. By May 2022, the health of the ex-president was so undermined that he was transferred to the hospital.
Several dozen doctors testified that Saakashvili was in serious condition. Among the diagnoses made to the politician are dementia and "intoxication of the body", in addition, during the time of imprisonment, he lost more than 40 kg. Specialists insisted that Saakashvili was not receiving the necessary treatment and that he needed to be transported to the United States or the European Union. On January 31, it became known that the politician was in critical condition, and he was transferred to intensive care.
In early February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Georgian authorities of "slowly killing" Saakashvili and demanded his release. Saakashvili himself has previously stated that he was poisoned in prison.
