Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili took part in a court hearing for the first time since February

Vladimir Zelensky again called on the Georgian authorities to transfer him to Ukraine for treatment

Former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili remotely took part in a court hearing on the case of the dispersal of the rally on November 7, 2007 and the pogrom at the Imedi television company. This is reported by Interpressnews.

Now the ex-president is in the Vivamed clinic. His supporters talk about his extremely serious state of health and threat to life. The ruling Georgian Dream party accuses the former president of simulating.

Saakashvili said that despite declining health and weight loss, "he is very brave in spirit." The next hearing in the case is scheduled for July 26.

After the publication of footage of Saakashvili's deteriorating physical condition, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again called on the Georgian authorities to transfer the politician to Ukraine for treatment.

“Right now, Russia is killing Ukrainian citizen Mikheil Saakashvili with the hands of the Georgian authorities. Once again I urge the Georgian authorities to hand over Ukrainian citizen Mikheil Saakashvili to Ukraine for the necessary treatment and care. And I urge our partners to turn, not to ignore this situation and save this person. No government in Europe has the right to execute people, life is a basic European value,” Zelensky wrote on his Telegram channel.

He also said that he had instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to call the Georgian ambassador, protest to him over the situation with Saakashvili and offer to leave Ukraine for consultations with Tbilisi.

Mikheil Saakashvili returned from Ukraine to Georgia in autumn 2021. At that time, the politician was sentenced in absentia to 6 years in two criminal cases on abuse of power. Two more - about the dispersal of the action on November 7, 2007 and about the waste of the state budget. On October 1, 2021, Saakashvili was arrested and placed in the Rustavi prison. Soon, illegal border crossing was added to the charges.

During the 15 months of his arrest, the politician repeatedly declared hunger strikes, and on May 12, 2022, he was transferred to a clinic due to health problems. Last November, the ex-president's lawyer reported that after his arrest, his client was poisoned with heavy metals.

On January 31, 2023, it became known that the politician was transferred to intensive care. The next day, Saakashvili spoke remotely at a court session in an extremely exhausted state. On the same day, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, in an interview with Bloomberg, refused to comment on the issue of pardoning the politician.

In early February, the Tbilisi City Court refused to satisfy the request of the lawyers of ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili to transfer their client to the Berlin clinic "Charite" for treatment.