Ukraine is demanding that Georgia grant it access to imprisoned former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who holds Ukrainian citizenship and whose health is said to be deteriorating.
Writing on Telegram on December 15, Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said that Saakashvili was in need of urgent medical care and should be allowed to travel to Western Europe or the United States.
Lubinets said Ukraine would defend the rights and interests of its citizens abroad.
Saakashvili, who was Georgia’s president from 2004 to 2013, is serving a six-year sentence for abuse of power, a charge that he and his supporters say was politically motivated.
His medical team says his health has worsened significantly since he went to prison in October 2021 and staged repeated hunger strikes. He is being treated in a Tbilisi clinic, but lawyers have sought to have his sentence suspended so he can be transferred abroad.
On December 16, dozens of anti-corruption activists rallied in front of parliament in Tbilisi, demanding Saakashvili’s transfer to a Western clinic for treatment.
Three opposition United National Movement lawmakers -- David Kirkitadze, Anna Tsitlidze, and Abdulla Ismailov, as well as Saakashvili's former bodyguard service chief Temur Jania -- are on hunger strike inside parliament to demand that Saakashvili be allowed to receive medical attention abroad.
On December 14, Georgia's Penitentiary Service released a video it said was taken on August 9, October 4, and December 12, showing Saakashvili in a medical facility in Tbilisi. It said this was "proof that his life is not in danger." But few appeared convinced with calls only growing for him to receive medical care abroad.
Saakashvili's lawyer, Shalva Khachapuridze, accused Penitentiary Service officials of committing a criminal offense by releasing the footage without his client's consent.
Saakashvili 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.