TBILISI/KYIV – Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has decided to refuse medical assistance to facilitate his hunger strike, Ukrainian MP Maxym Perebyinis, an anesthesiologist, told reporters after a meeting with Saakashvili at the prison in Rustavi on Oct. 27.
“Misha (Mikheil Saakashvili) said that as of today because he is being denied legal assistance, he is refusing medical supervision, he refuses tests and those medical procedures that facilitate his hunger strike,” Perebyinis said, noting that this will further complicate and increase the risks of the hunger strike.
According to Perebyinis, he was not given the opportunity to examine Saakashvili and was not given access to his medical history. He noted that the prison administration said this was because he was allowed to meet with Saakashvili as a deputy, not a doctor.
“We talked through the glass,” Perebyinis said.
“I believe that any person who is on hunger strike for 27 days is a patient who needs medical observation, certain medical tests,” he said.
Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova also reported Saakashvili’s refusal of any medical care.
“Ukrainian citizen Mikheil Saakashvili, who is in Penitentiary No. 12 in the city of Rustavi (Georgia) and is on hunger strike for the 27th day, has refused any medical support. His refusal to eat poses a threat to his life,” Denisova said on Facebook on Oct. 27.
She called on the prison authorities to respond immediately in case Saakashvili’s health deteriorated and let him get professional medical support in a civilian medical institution.
Saakashvili, former Georgian president and 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.
Georgia earlier declared Saakashvili wanted as a person convicted in absentia in several criminal cases and treated as a suspect in some others. The Georgian authorities warned repeatedly that he would be detained immediately after he crossed the border. Saakashvili has described his detention as unlawful and the charges brought against him as falsified.
