Georgia Lambasted Over Saakashvili’s Treatment

Giorgi Lomsadze

Tbilisi-based journalist

Tuesday, 11 July, 2023

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A recent court appearance by a visibly ailing ex-Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili has further heightened tensions between Georgia and Ukraine, of which the 55-year-old is also a citizen. 

Saakashvili looked skeletal and feeble in the Tbilisi court session on July 3, his hair thin and his cheeks hollowed, as he spoke via video link from a hospital ward that serves as his prison.   

“You need to apologise to me for bringing me to this condition,” Saakashvili said, addressing the governing Georgian Dream (GD) party as he pulled up his shirt to reveal protruding ribs.

Ruling party officials dismissed Saakashvili’s complaints. GD chairman Irakli Kobakhidze said that the ex-president looked like an advertisement for the gastric bypass surgical method for weight-loss. He said that Saakashvili was deliberately trying to manipulate his way out of court-ordered detention.

“All along we’ve been saying that his family members are deliberately bringing him low-calorie food,” Kobakhidze told reporters.  

Saakashvili has been in custody for more than two-and-half years. He faces multiple charges of abuse of power and corruption that date back to his 2004-2012 term as president. Describing himself as a founder of the modern Georgian state, Saakashvili has dismissed the charges as a political vendetta by his rival Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire GD founder and éminence grise of Georgian politics.   

CHEQUERED PAST

Within Georgia, Saakashvili’s legacy is bitterly debated, with some praising him for pulling the country out of a mire of crime and corruption, and others denouncing him for running roughshod over political dissent. His dramatic return to Georgia in 2021 with the avowed mission of bringing down Ivanishvili’s rule ended in fiasco and his arrest.

The ex-president’s appearance prompted outrage among his loyalists and concerns from human rights groups. The United National Movement (UNM), Georgia’s largest opposition party which was founded by Saakashvili, staged a series of protests.

Rights groups also reiterated calls for Saakashvili’s early release on health grounds. 

“Denial of adequate medical care to Mikheil Saakashvili amounts to torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment and is putting his life at grave risk,” said Denis Krivosheev, a representative of Amnesty International.

Saakashvili has repeatedly claimed that he was subject to torture in custody. The authorities deny the accusation but on one instance released a video showing several guards dragging the ex-president by his limbs. Another video showed Saakashvili having what looked like seizures. 

Several independent medical evaluations concluded that he was suffering from a number of life-threatening physical and psychological conditions, warning that these could leave the ex-president permanently disabled or even dead. The authorities nonetheless insist that Saakashvili’s health problems are a result of self-harm.

“Even if that was the case, self-harm is linked to psychological health and can serve as grounds for early release,” Giorgi Gogia, Human Rights Watch’s associate director for Europe and Central Asia, told IWPR.

“I can’t evaluate his medical condition, but his visual appearance is certainly a cause for concern,”
Gogia continued. “We also have medical evaluations that say that he is grappling with several life-threatening conditions and that can warrant early release if the government has the good will to do it.”

Gogia said that even claims of deliberate self-harm did not free the authorities of responsibility for Saakashvili’s fate.

“Even if that was the case, self-harm is linked to psychological health and can serve as grounds for early release,” he said, adding that the responsibility for ensuring inmates’ mental and physical health fell on the state.  

KYIV'S RESPONSE

Saakashvili’s appearance prompted diplomatic fury between Georgia and Ukraine. An outraged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky  - for whom Saakashvili once served as an advisor  - dismissed Georgia’s ambassador to Ukraine.

“Right now, Russia is killing Ukrainian citizen Mykhailo Saakashvili at the hands of the Georgian authorities,” Zelensky tweeted, using the Ukrainian version of Saakashvili’s first name. He demanded the Georgian government hand over Saakashvili to Ukraine.  

Tbilisi responded with outrage to its ambassador’s eviction. 

Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili said that “friends don’t deserve to be treated like that” while GD chairman Kobakhidze described the move as “an offensive thing to do,”  although adding that Georgia was going to continue with its “unrequited friendship” with Ukraine.

While Tbilisi and Kyiv have clashed on the issue of Saakashvili in the past, it was Russia’s full-scale invasion that put the long-time friendly relations between Ukraine and Georgia to the test. Tbilisi’s refusal to join Western economic sanctions against Moscow has fuelled anger in Kyiv, while growing trade between Georgia and Russia and the recent launch of direct flights have put a fresh strain on the relations. Saakashvili’s health situation was the final straw.

“Ukraine-Georgia relations were always centred on personal friendships between their leaders and have never been not properly institutionalised,” Kornely Kakachia, the director of Georgian Institute for Politics, a Tbilisi-based think-tank, told IWPR. 

Georgia’s second president Eduard Shevardnadze maintained good personal ties with his Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kuchma, Kakachia continued, while Saakashvili was close friends with his Ukrainian opposite number Viktor Yushchenko.

“GD’s lack of diplomatic prowess prevented them from building strong ties with Ukraine’s current leadership,” Kakachia said. 

Saakashvili and members of his administration filled the gap, moving to Ukraine to help emulate Georgia’s success in fighting corruption and red tape. Tbilisi was left complaining that Kyiv served as a refuge for Georgian officials wanted on various charges in Georgia.

Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova were once in lockstep on their path toward integration with the European Union. Now, however, Georgia lags behind as it is the only country in the trio that was not granted the status of EU candidate last year. Lack of democratic reform, domestic political polarisation and increasingly close relations with Russia are widely cited as the reasons for Georgia’s failure to take the landmark step toward much-wanted membership in the bloc.

The situation with Saakashvili is also threatening Georgia’s European future, Kakachia noted. Brussels may be looking at the broader geopolitical picture, but European parliamentarians have a say in the process and scores have spoken out in support of Saakashvili in the face of the ex-president’s deteriorating health. Key European parliamentarians have also long called on Georgia to move past internal political feuds and focus on European integration in a concerted manner. 

“The only place that benefits from this whole situation is Moscow,” Kakachia said. “They are rubbing their hands in the Kremlin now as they watch the reactions from Europe and squabbling between Tbilisi and Kyiv.”