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Posted On

09
November
2021

Saakashvili calls for peaceful protest to continue in letter to his supporters

TBILISI. Nov 9 (Interfax) – Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s lawyer Nika Gvaramia showed two pieces of paper covered in handwriting on the Mtavari Arkhi opposition TV channel, where he holds the post of general director, early on Tuesday morning, saying that it is Saakashvili’s letter.

The ex-president said in his letter that he was deceived into agreeing to be transported to the Gldani prison’s hospital in Tbilisi, because he was told that he was being transferred to a civilian clinic.

Upon arrival at the Gldani prison, Saakashvili was dragged out of the ambulance, was forced to the ground, was struck on the neck, and was dragged along by the hair, according to the letter.

Saakashvili says in the papers shown by Gvaramia on his TV channel that he damaged medical equipment in the prison hospital as medical staff tried to administer some injection to him. The former president also claims in the letter that he is resisting attempts to give him any medical treatment and will see only his personal physician Nikoloz Kipshidze.

The former president alleges in the letter that his transfer to the prison hospital is part of the plan to get rid of him. Saakashvili tells his supporters that no one will be able to defeat them if their protests draw a large number of participants and if these protests are peaceful.

In the letter, the ex-president also calls on Georgian emigrants to arrive in Georgia at least for one day and to join the struggle for the country’s liberation.

The letter also welcomes the decision of United National Movement chairman Nikanor Melia not to march together with participants in a rally on Freedom Square to the Gldani prison, where the authorities plotted a provocation to disrupt citizens’ peaceful protest.

However, Gvaramia, who served as Georgia’s justice minister and deputy prosecutor general during Saakashvili’s presidency, did not explain how he got hold of the ex-president’s "letter". Georgian ombudsman Nino Lomjaria and her aide have been allowed to visit Saakashvili in the Gldani prison in the past few hours.

As reported, on Monday evening Saakashvili was transferred against his will from the Rustavi prison, where he went on hunger strike 40 days ago, to the prison hospital situated on the grounds of a prison in the Gldani district of Tbilisi.

Simultaneously, several thousand opposition supporters gathered in the center of Tbilisi demanding that the politician be released from prison and that early parliamentary elections be set.

Melia said at the rally that protests will be staged in several places in Tbilisi, including near the Justice Ministry building, from Tuesday morning.

No serious incidents have been reported thus far, except for opposition supporters’ jostling with police outside the State Chancellery building after a slogan "Freedom to Misha!" was painted on the square.