Freedom to Mikheil Saakashvili

Mikheil Saakashvili's handwritten note wishing the Georgian National Soccer team success at the Euro 2024 Tournament | PC: Saakashvili personal archives

Political Persecution of Mr. Saakashvili

World leaders and public figures, including President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, President Macron of France, President Sandu of Moldova, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Sikorski, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Landsbergis, Foreign Minister of Estonia Reinsalu, former Prime Minister of Poland Morawiecki, former Prime Minister of Belgium Guy Verhofstadt, former Soviet dissident Nathan Sharansky, American historian and journalist Anne Applebaum, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, late Russian pro-democracy leader Alexei Navalny, American human rights activist Kerry Kennedy, the jailed Russian democracy activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, former chess world champion Garry Kasparov, and former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, among others have called on the Georgian authorities to free Mr. Saakashvili.

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On 25 April 2024 the European Parliament approved by overwhelming vote a resolution calling for Mr. Saakashvili’s release. 27 EU member states diplomatically demarched to the Georgian government regarding Mr. Saakashvili’s deteriorating health. US Department of State urged the government of Georgia to “heed the Public Defender’s recommendations about appropriate treatment”. Ukraine expelled the Georgian ambassador and called on the Georgian authorities to put "an end to these abuses and [allow] Saakashvili's return to Ukraine”.

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The report by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) says the situation in which Mr. Saakashvili is being held “is oppressive, degrading and not conducive to improving his health condition.” The CPT visit took place in March 2023 but was only published in January 2024. The report also noted that “as things stand at present …. the three secure wards of Viva Medi clinic fail to offer a proper therapeutic environment, due to the final word on all essential matters belonging to custodial staff and to the total lack of respect to patients’ privacy and medical confidentiality.”

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Mr. Saakashvili’s health deteriorated while in prison facilities since 2021. It had been exacerbated by his repeated hunger strikes in protest against his incarceration. Georgian authorities have refused to allow for his transfer abroad despite recommendations of the Public Defender and medics.

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Upon his return to Georgia after eight years in exile, Mr. Saakashvili was arrested on October 1, 2021. His mistreatment in various prison facilities has been criticized by local and international human rights groups. Mr. Saakashvili has reportedly been tortured in custody. While the authorities deny the accusation on one instance they released a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTWpZXPMRJ4 showing prison guards dragging Mr. Saakashvili by his limbs. Amnesty International assessed that Mr. Saakashvili’s treatment by authorities was “not just selective justice but apparent political revenge”. Reacting to the circumstances of Mr. Saakashvili’s forceful transfer to yet another prison facility Human Rights Watch stated that it could be interpreted as a "forced treatment”.

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Mr. Saakashvili has been convicted in absentia for alleged abuse of power. The charges against him are widely viewed as a “political revenge”.

Since early April Georgia has been embroiled in wide scale protest against the “foreign influence” law re-introduced and adopted by the Georgian Dream government under the sway of a Moscow-linked oligarch Ivanishvili. The law would clamp down on NGOs, independent media and opposition, and derail the country’s hopes of joining the EU. The legislation is just the latest in a series of increasingly authoritarian actions by Georgian Dream leading the country away from its constitutionally enshrined Western path and into alignment with Kremlin-style authoritarianism.

Hundreds of thousands of Georgian citizens have convened in the streets of Tbilisi and all major cities across the country. Police have targeted opposition leaders and civil activists who have been severely beaten and intimidated while hundreds of protestors have been fined by courts. Levan Khabeishvili, chair of the United National Movement and David Katsarava, a civilian activist, among many others suffered a facial fractures.

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Georgia was the first ex-Soviet republic in 2003 to mount a pro-democracy “coloured” revolution, and to feel the wrath of Putin through an invasion five years later. After the 2003 Rose revolution, Georgia embarked on a dizzyingly ambitious reform program under the presidency of Mr. Saakashvili, a US-educated and media-friendly ally of the west. In his first term, his anti-corruption zeal and determination to bring Georgia closer to NATO and the EU won him accolades at home and abroad, and impressive economic growth.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy holds images of Mr. Saakashvili taken in prison. 1 February 2023. Photo credit: Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP

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