GEORGIA’S jailed opposition leader and ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been on hunger strike for weeks, is in a critical condition and lacks proper medical care, doctors said yesterday.

Saakashvili, who was president between 2004 and 2013, has been refusing food for 48 days to protest his imprisonment on October 1, shortly after his return from exile in Ukraine.

Georgia’s government has refused to move him from prison hospital to a civilian clinic, against the advice of doctors who have warned of imminent risks to Saakashvili’s life.

Yesterday, a council of medics set up by ombudsman Nino Lomjaria said after examining Saakashvili that his “current status is assessed as critical”.

The prison hospital where Saakashvili is being treated fails to meet his medical needs, they added, calling for his immediate transfer to intensive care in a civilian clinic better equipped to care for him.

Last week, Saakashvili was moved to a prison hospital as his condition worsened.

The 53-year-old pro-Western reformer has said he was assaulted by guards in prison and that he fears for his life.

International rights groups have condemned Saakashvili’s treatment and branded it political revenge.

Several opposition lawmakers have also been on hunger strike for days, demanding proper medical care for Saakashvili, a call reiterated by the United States and the European Court of Human Rights.

Saakashvili’s arrest exacerbated a political crisis stemming from parliamentary polls last year the opposition denounced as fraudulent.

It has also spurred some of the largest anti-government protests in a decade.

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili sparked an uproar recently saying Saakashvili “has the right to commit suicide” and that the government had been forced to arrest him because he had refused to quit politics. – AFP, November 18, 2021.