Ukrainian consul visits Saakashvili in prison
"Today, the Ukrainian consul visited Ukrainian citizen Mikheil Saakashvili in a penitentiary institution in the city of Rustavi in Georgia. Mikheil Saakashvili's health status is satisfactory, he did not complain about the conditions of detention," Oleg Nikolenko, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, said in a comment to Ukrinform.
He added that the Foreign Ministry and the Embassy of Ukraine in Tbilisi would continue to provide Saakashvili as a Ukrainian citizen with consular and legal assistance. The consul also keeps in touch with his lawyers.
As reported, on Friday morning, October 1, Saakashvili posted a video on Facebook, in which he said that he was in Batumi.
In the evening of the same day, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili announced that Mikheil Saakashvili had been detained on October 1. In turn, the former president went on a hunger strike, saying he considered himself a political prisoner.
Mikheil Saakashvili was the president of Georgia in 2008-2013. After losing the 2013 election, he left the country. Several criminal cases were instituted against him in his homeland, within some of which he was sentenced to imprisonment in absentia.
In 2015, Saakashvili was deprived of Georgian citizenship and has been a citizen of Ukraine for almost six years. He currently heads the Executive Committee of the National Reform Council of Ukraine.
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