TBILISI -- Imprisoned former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has stopped a hunger strike just hours after he launched it to protest his incarceration.
Saakashvili explained his reasons for stopping his hunger strike in a letter that his lawyer, Shalva Khachapuridze, read to journalists late on December 14.
"One of the reasons...is not to give any reasons to my critics that I allegedly intentionally inflict damage to my health. The second and major reason is the strong call by members of the European Parliament to stop the hunger strike, promising to monitor my basic rights on a permanent basis," Saakashvili's letter said.
Earlier in the day, Khachapuridze read out a written statement from Saakashvili in which he announced that he had launched the hunger strike -- his third in just over a year -- hours after the Tbilisi City Court postponed a hearing into his request to delay his prison sentence due to poor health. The court said it had to delay the hearing until December 22 because of technical problems that arose when arranging Saakashvili's participation via a video link.
Saakashvili has been on two other hunger strikes while in custody. The first one lasted 50 days, ending in November last year amid mounting concerns about his health.
He began the second hunger strike in February to protest the government's refusal to provide adequate health care. He said he stopped it in March after receiving a request to do so by Georgians fighting against Russia in Ukraine.
The former president was arrested on his return to Georgia from self-imposed exile on October 1, 2021, after an eight-year absence.
Saakashvili, who served as Georgia's president from 2004 until 2013, is serving a six-year sentence after being convicted in absentia of abuse of office, a charge he calls politically motivated.
He is currently on trial on separate charges of violently dispersing an anti-government rally in November 2007 and illegal border crossing. He has rejected those charges as well, calling them trumped up.
Saakashvili was transferred in May to a regular hospital in Tbilisi as his health dramatically worsened.
Last week, Saakashvili's lawyers distributed a medical report that said he had been "poisoned" by heavy metals while in custody and risked dying without proper treatment.
The Georgian government has denied that Saakashvili's life is in danger.