Trial in Tbilisi: Former Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili appeared in pictures, visibly weakened. Volodimir Zelensky came out with a harsh reaction
Dramatic images of former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. He is in detention in Tbilisi. Saakashvili appeared in the pictures, visibly weakened, at the court hearing which he attended remotely via video link. The hearings are taking place in the case concerning the dispersal of a protest in Georgia in 2007. This is the first time in several months that Saakashvili has attempted to take part in the trial, Georgian media reported. Judges were shocked by the state of the former head of state, and Kiev leader Volodimir Zelenski came out with a harsh reaction.
Mikhail Saakashvili watched via video link the hearings in the so-called "7 November 2007" trial, in which he is accused of abuse of power. Saakashvili pleads not guilty and denies all charges. The former president has denounced the charges as false, blaming his current condition on Russian President Vladimir Putin's revenge. The 55-year-old former president lifted his shirt and showed off his torso, ribs and abdomen.
"I have committed no crime, Georgia has never had a guilty president. I want everyone to understand this. All this is because in 2003, during the Rose Revolution, we saved the statehood of Georgia and defeated corruption and crime. Corruption and criminals took revenge on me. This is the revenge of Putin, oligarchs and criminals against me," Mikhail Saakashvili said.
His doctors say the former Georgian leader, a man who weighed 115 kilos before his arrest, lost 60 kilos in prison, was poisoned with heavy metals, suffers from anorexia and cachexia. Saakashvili was detained on 1 October 2021 after illegally entering Georgia. He is the subject of four criminal cases. In two of them, he is sentenced in absentia to nine years in prison.
"This man (Mikhail Saakashvili) has always lived for this country. Even though he is now in critical condition, he is still thinking about this country and how to defend its independence," said Giuli Alasania, Mikhail Saakashvili's mother.
After seeing the images of Mikhail Saakashvili, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski announced he would expel the Georgian ambassador in protest at the former Georgian leader's situation.
"Today, the world has once again seen how the Kremlin - unfortunately through the current Georgian government - is killing Ukrainian citizen Mikhail Saakashvili. Human life is the highest value and we cannot allow Mikhail to be simply killed. Ukraine has repeatedly called on the Georgian authorities to stop this demonstrative execution," the Kiev leader said.
Volodimir Zelenski then called again on the Georgian authorities to transfer the Ukrainian citizen Mikhail Saakashvili to Ukraine for treatment and care. Saakashvili's supporters say he may have been poisoned. Georgia's former pro-Western president, a challenger to the Kremlin authorities who in 2008 launched an armed invasion of NATO-aspiring Georgia, was arrested on his return from exile in 2021. He is the main opposition figure to the current government, which critics say is under Russian influence.
