Gaunt Saakashvili appears online at court hearing

Mikheil Saakashvili, former Georgian president and current Ukrainian citizen, made a remote appearance in a court hearing for the first time in several months, revealing a noticeable deterioration in his health, Saakashvili’s former spokeswoman, Daryna Chyzh, wrote on Facebook on July 3.

“I may be physically weak, but I’m very strong inside, I’m very strong! I didn’t commit a crime against Georgia,” Chyzh quoted Saakashvili as saying in court.

Mtavari, an independent Georgian TV station, aired footage of Saakashvili's statement from the Vivamed clinic in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Saakashvili reacted to the statements of the speaker of the Georgian parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, who had previously claimed that the European supporters of the former president should apologize to the Georgian people.

Papuashvili said that “Georgia was sacrificed by Mikheil Saakashvili’s Georgian and foreign friends to organize riots.”

“It turns out that the European Parliament should apologize for demanding my release,” Saakashvili said, in reference to Papuashvili.

“I want to tell the so-called speaker of the parliament that you should apologize for bringing me to such a condition, you should apologize to the members of the European Parliament, to my family, to me, to the Ukrainian state and to all Georgians for the fact that the founder of the Georgian state is in such a condition."

“Papuashvili, look at me carefully,” he said in court and lifted his T-shirt up, showing his skinny and cadaverous body.

Saakashvili has been incarcerated since his return to Georgia in autumn 2021, prior to the local elections. It was his first return since the end of his second presidential term in 2013. He has been sentenced to six years in prison following several cases opened against him by the Georgian government.

Read also: Saakashvili slams Georgia for refusal to return missile systems to Ukraine

The politician has undertaken several hunger strikes in protest of what he deems politically motivated arrest. Saakashvili's legal team, family, and supporters assert that he requires overseas treatment due to his grave health condition, attributed to his hunger strikes and maltreatment.

Saakashvili's attorney, Shalva Khachapuridze, announced in November 2022 that his client had been diagnosed with dementia and tuberculosis. Saakashvili has suggested that he may have been poisoned by Russian agents.

Read also: Foreign Ministry calls on Georgia "to stop abusing" Saakashvili and send him to Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in February 2023 that the Georgian government was killing Saakashvili and called for his release to Ukraine or elsewhere.

The European Parliament passed a resolution calling for Saakashvili to be released for treatment abroad.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine