Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili will be transferred to a prison infirmary if necessary, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said on Oct. 29.

“Saakashvili’s transfer to a city hospital has been ruled out in order to prevent a civil standoff,” Garibashvili said on the Imedi television channel.

According to the prime minister, Saakashvili hopes that his supporters will free him by force if he is transferred to a city clinic. “We won’t take the risk of transferring Saakashvili to a city clinic and will not put his followers in harm’s way, either,” Garibashvili said.

Garibashvili ruled out Saakashvili being released from custody early or being transferred to Ukraine, where he holds citizenship.

Saakashvili, currently a citizen of Ukraine, secretly arrived in Georgia from Ukraine on Sept. 29. He was detained in Tbilisi on Oct. 1 and is currently being held in a Rustavi prison.

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Georgia earlier declared Saakashvili wanted as a person convicted in absentia in several criminal cases and treated as a suspect in some others. Saakashvili has described his detention as unlawful and the charges brought against him as falsified.

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