Tbilisi blasts at Zelenskyy over torture remarks about Saakashvili

Georgia's Justice Minister Rati Bregadze called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to present at least one piece of proof of the torture of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to back up his claims.

According to him, saying that someone is being tortured in Georgia is an unfair and insulting statement.

"In response to this statement [of Zelenskyy], one thing can be said: the practice of inhumane treatment and torture in Georgia, including in relation to the citizen of Georgia then and now the citizen of Ukraine, who was at the head of this whole system, has passed into the past, and it was a shameful page in the history of Georgia, which all of us, our children, grandchildren and future generations have to carry as a burden, as a heavy and shameful history when people were tortured and there are dozens of judgments about it," Bregadze is quoted as saying by Interpress.Ge.

He said no matter who accuses the Georgian state of torture, it is completely unacceptable.

At the press conference held in Kyiv with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen on February 1, Zelenskyy presented the photos showing the current state of Mikheil Saakashvili and said:

"Once he was the president of Georgia. They [photos] were given to me by Davit Arakhamia. I would like you to see how he looks," said Zelenskyy, adding he thinks today the government of Georgia wants to kill Saakashvili.

"You know that they poisoned him and now slowly, sorry, they are killing him," Zelenskyy said.

In addition, according to Zelensky, the reason why Saakashvili was arrested is not part of the discussion, because it is an internal matter of Georgia, although Saakashvili, a citizen of Ukraine, is publicly tortured.

"I would like the press to see what is happening: the public torture of a Ukrainian citizen. I will not discuss the issue - why the former president of Georgia was arrested, and what are the consequences for Georgian politics and democracy. This is their internal issue. I am talking about the detention of Ukrainian citizen Mikheil Saakashvili, who is publicly tortured every day. And I think they have a goal - to kill him," Zelenskyy concluded.