State Department: Georgia Should Ensure Saakashvili Receives 'Every Bit Of Care He Needs'

The United States on Tuesday urged the Georgian government to ensure that the country's jailed ailing ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili "is receiving every bit of care that he needs," the State Department spokesperson told a daily press briefing.

"It’s a responsibility of the Georgian Government to treat Mr. Saakashvili fairly and with dignity, including by providing all necessary medical and psychological treatment as recommended by the independent public defenders’ medical experts," spokesperson Ned Price said in response to TURAN's questions.  "

Saakashvili, who was Georgia’s president from 2004 to 2013, is serving a 6-year sentence for abuse of power, and is currently on trial on violently dispersing an anti-government rally in 2007 and illegal border crossing, charges that he and his supporters say are politically motivated. He has launched several hunger strikes to protest his imprisonment. requires life-saving medical care abroad, according to his doctors.

Earlier on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked the Georgian government to transfer Saakashvili to a medical facility in Ukraine, Europe or the United States. "What is happening to Mikheil now is cruelty. It must be stopped," Zelensky said in a video statement.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.