Hunger-striking Georgia ex-president Saakashvili pleads to US in scrawled prison note
- Mikheil Saakashvili was arrested on October 1 after returning from exile to Georgia
- US ‘closely following’ the treatment of the Georgian ex-president on hunger strike in prison
Imprisoned and on hunger strike, Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili called on the United States for help as the former Soviet republic turns away from the pro-Western path he set it on 18 years ago.
Saakashvili sent the scrawled, handwritten responses to questions through his lawyers this week. Almost 50 days into a hunger strike in which he drinks but does not eat, a doctor told reporters outside the hospital on Thursday the 53-year-old temporarily lost consciousness during the day but was now stable.
In his notes, the former president said he had been beaten and dragged across asphalt to orchestrated taunting by inmates while in prison. The government refused to move him to a civilian hospital, give him a phone or even let him attend his own trial, Saakashvili wrote.
He said he returned ahead of local elections in October because a combination of “Russian games” and government statements had convinced him the nation of 4 million was abandoning its goal of joining the European Union and Nato.
“If the US doesn’t come to my defence it would be a terrible signal to all pro-Western leaders and populations” in the region, wrote Saakashvili. He was arrested on October 1 for crossing the border illegally and jailed to serve a previous in-absentia conviction for abuse of office.
The justice ministry said the minister was unavailable for comment on Saakashvili’s claims. A spokeswoman for the ruling Georgian Dream party declined to comment.