By Jake Cordell
TBILISI (Reuters) -A Georgian court on Monday rejected an appeal to release former President Mikheil Saakashvili from prison on health grounds, Saakashvili’s legal team said.
Saakashvili, who led the former Soviet republic as a pro-Western reformer from 2004 to 2013, is serving a six-year sentence for abuse of power, a charge that he and his supporters say was politically motivated.
In a statement shared by Saakashvili’s team, the ex-leader slammed the ruling as a “death sentence” handed down by his political opponents.
“The Georgian court hearing turned out to be a total joke,” Saakashvili said.
“The government’s experts did not even bother to see me … Now I’ve basically got a death sentence,” he added.
Saakashvili has staged multiple hunger strikes while in prison and alleges he has been poisoned. His health has drastically deteriorated and he has lost over 40% of his body weight since October 2021, according to health records shared by his political ally and family spokesman Giorgi Chaladze.
Georgian officials say the ex-president is simulating the seriousness of his condition in order to gain early release.
(Reporting by Jake Cordell and Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
