TBILISI -- The lawyer of jailed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has accused prison officials of committing a criminal offense by releasing without consent security camera footage of his client while he was in a medical facility in Tbilisi.
Georgia's Penitentiary Service on December 14 released video segments taken on August 9, October 4, and December 12, showing Saakashvili in the clinic as "proof that his life is not in danger."
Last week, Saakashvili's legal team distributed a medical report that said he had been "poisoned" with heavy metals while in custody and risked dying without proper treatment.
Saakashvili’s lawyer, Shalva Khachapuridze, told journalists late on December 14 that "the distribution of this video is a criminal offense."
"This video material belongs to the category of personal data and cannot be made public without the inmate's consent," Khachapuridze told journalists late on December 14.
Khachapuridze added that although the video segments had been doctored to give an impression that Saakashvili's health state is normal, "it is clear to any reasonable person that the man in the video feels ill."
Khachapuridze's statements came after Saakashvili announced that he had started a hunger strike to protest against his incarceration. He ended the protest hours later.
Saakashvili, who served as Georgia's president from 2004 until 2013, was arrested on his return to Georgia from self-imposed exile in October 2021, after an eight-year absence.
He is now serving a six-year sentence after being convicted in absentia of abuse of office, a charge he calls politically motivated.
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.
Saakashvili was transferred in May to a regular hospital in Tbilisi as his health markedly worsened.