2 yıl önce

Thousands march in support of Georgia's jailed ex-leader Saakashvili

Around 3,000 protesters held a rally outside the prison in the southeastern city of Rustaviwhere where jailed former president Mikheil Saakashvili has been on a hunger strike.

AFP

Mikheil Saakashvili has refused food for 37 days to protest his imprisonment, which he says is politically motivated.

Thousands of Georgians have rallied for the jailed opposition leader and ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili as fears grew for his health because of a hunger strike lasting several weeks.

Waving Georgian flags and chanting Saakashvili's name, protesters gathered on Saturday evening outside the prison in Georgia's southeastern city of Rustavi, where the former president is being held.

Georgia's pro-Western reformer president from 2004-2013, Saakashvili was arrested on October 1 on his return from exile in Ukraine.

He has refused food for 37 days to protest his imprisonment, which he says is politically motivated.

'Unrelenting' struggle

The protesters set up a dozen of tents outside the prison in Rustavi, vowing round-the-clock permanent protests until Saakashvili is transferred to a hospital, as recommended by medics.

"Saakashvili's life must be saved," Nika Melia, the chairman of his United National Movement – the country's main opposition party – told the crowd.

"We give the government 24 hours to transfer him to a civilian hospital."

"If the demand is not met, all of Georgia will gather on Monday in (Tbilisi's) Freedom Square," he said.

"Our struggle will be unrelenting, peaceful."

He ridiculed as a "fairytale" claims by Georgia's state security service that Saakashvili was plotting a coup from prison.

One of the demonstrators, actor Bachi Valishvili, 26, said: "The Georgian government is leading us into an abyss of tyranny. We demand our democracy back."

"We demand Georgia's third president be transferred to a proper clinic and treated adequately, so that his life is saved," he added.

"We will not stand by and wait for the man to die, we will not let our democracy die."

Worsening health condition

In a statement released through his lawyers, Saakashvili said Saturday that his "health condition has significantly worsened and serious complications are looming".

Doctors have said Saakashvili faces an imminent risk of death as he has an underlying blood disorder that makes his hunger strike particularly dangerous.

But Georgia's health ministry has rejected their recommendation to hospitalise him.

The jailing of the country's foremost opposition leader has further fuelled a protracted political crisis that gripped Georgia last year after the opposition denounced fraud in parliamentary elections won narrowly by the ruling Georgian Dream party.

SOURCE: TRTWorld and agencies