Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the issue of former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who is a citizen of Ukraine, during a recent phone conversation.
Zelenskyy tweeted that he told Garibashvili that Saakashvili’s rights ‘must be fully protected’ in accordance with international standards and that the relatives of the former president and Ukrainian doctors should be allowed to see the former president in Gldani Prison No.18 hospital.
The Administration of the Government of Georgia cited Garibashvili as saying that Saakashvili's health, like all prisoners in Georgia, is being monitored by highly-qualified doctors round the clock.
Garibashvili also said that lawyers and family members have never been barred from seeing the former president in prison.
“Saakashvili has had more than 100 visitors since his arrest (in Tbilisi on October 1),” Garibashvili told Zelenskyy.
He also told the Ukrainian President that Saakashvili verbally and physically abused prison and medical staff during his transfer from Rustavi prison to Gldani prison hospital on Monday, and the prison administration acted in accordance with the law to bring Saakashvili to the prison hospital to prevent complications in his health.
Garibashvili said that Saakashvili’s actions are ‘provocative’ and ‘aim to cause unrest’ in Georgia.
Citizens of Ukraine have no legitimate right to intervene in the domestic affairs of Georgia,” Garibashvili told Zelenskyy, noting that Saakashvili illegally entered Georgia from Ukraine at the end of September after eight years in political exile.
Garibashvili also said there is no need for Ukrainian doctors to concern themselves with Saakashvili’s health, as the former president ‘has been supervised by professional and highly-qualified Georgian doctors’ since the day one of his hunger strike on October 1.