Thousands of Georgians demonstrated on Tuesday in Tbilisi to demand the release of former President Mikheil Saakachvili, who has become a leader of the opposition and “tortured” in prison according to doctors. They announced a “mass hunger strike” to protest his incarceration.
Protesters, who marched through the Georgian capital before rallying in front of the Parliament, waved Georgian flags and signs “Free Saakashvili!” “. The protest coincided with the 54th birthday of the former president.
Hunger strike in front of the premises of the United National Movement
“Today, we are starting a mass hunger strike which will not end until Mikheïl Saakashvili is released,” said Nika Melia, the president of Mikheïl Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM), applauded by the demonstrators. However, it was not immediately clear how many people intended to take part in this supposedly hunger strike outside the party’s premises.
Arrested on October 1 on his return from eight years of exile in Ukraine, Mikheïl Saakachvili refused to eat for fifty days, in order to protest against his imprisonment for a conviction for abuse of power, the political nature of which he denounces. This pro-Western reformer, at the head of his country from 2004 to 2013, began to eat again after being transferred on November 20 to a military hospital in Gori (East), following concerns expressed by doctors who assured that his life was in danger.
Government accused of sanctioning political opponents
On Saturday, an independent council of doctors said he was currently suffering from serious neurological disorders, a consequence of the torture and ill-treatment suffered in detention. According to one of the demonstrators, Guoirgui Darsavelidzé, a 47-year-old architect, the ruling Georgian Dream party of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili must now “crack under popular pressure”. “We will not stop until Saakashvili is free,” he said.
The arrest of this prominent opposition figure has exacerbated the political crisis resulting from last year’s legislative elections in Georgia, marked by fraud according to the opposition, and it also sparked the largest anti-government protests in ten years. Human rights defenders accuse the Georgian government of using criminal charges to punish political opponents.