Gaunt and Ghostly, Georgia’s Jailed Ex-President Nears Death in Hospital

THE OBSERVER: Mikheil Saakashvili warned of Putin’s ambitions 15 years ago. Now he tells of torture by a regime that panders to Moscow

Georgia's jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili is seen via a video link in February during a hearing to consider a request to release him or defer, over health concerns, his six-year sentence for abuse of power. Photograph: Irakli Gedenidze/AP
Locked up in a Tbilisi hospital, Mikheil Saakashvili is slowly wasting away.

“I am asking to be transferred to Poland, as it is crystal clear that in Georgian hospital I will die,” Georgia’s former president wrote in response to questions from the Observer last week. His answers were scrawled in blue ballpoint pen on sheets of paper, passed to his lawyers.

Photographs and video of Saakashvili in hospital show him gaunt and confused. A recent report from independent experts suggested his health has deteriorated severely and he will soon face irreversible organ damage. Since his arrest, he says, his weight has halved to 60kg.

“Your eyes hurt when you look at him, it’s not a person any more but a ghost,” said Giorgi Chaladze, Saakashvili’s lawyer and political ally who regularly visits him in hospital. » | Shaun Walker in Tbilisi | Sunday, April 16, 2023