Georgian authorities fear for ex-president

The director-general of the Vivamed clinic, Nino Nadiradze, where the Georgian ex-president is undergoing treatment, has said that the Special Penitentiary Service of the Georgian Ministry of Justice thoroughly checks every person coming to see ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili.

“The prison officers are scared that Saakashvili may be poisoned by his entourage and have tightened security measures. As far as I understand, the danger from this point of view is very big,” she made these remarks in an interview with the Imedi TV channel, TASS reports.

She said that the allegations made by Saakashvili, members of his family and lawyers about the alleged poisoning are false.

The Tbilisi City Court rejected the request of the ex-president's lawyers for his release on health grounds on February 6, 2023.

During more than 10 meetings, doctors and experts, including foreign ones, spoke as witnesses and stated that the ex-president had many diseases.

The Georgian authorities’ position is that Saakashvili is simulating. The decision of the lower instance court was upheld by the Tbilisi Court of Appeal on March 2.