Saakashvili stops second hunger strike in Rustavi prison

TBILISI. March 10 (Interfax) - Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said on social networks he is stopping his second hunger strike in the Rustavi prison.

He said he has made this decision because of a letter "from Georgian fighters fighting in Ukraine," who asked him to stop his hunger strike.

"The same request is coming to me from representatives of the Supreme Military Command of Ukraine, with whom I am in constant contact," Saakashvili said.

What is needed now is "common sense, health, and full mobilization," he said.

Saakashvili secretly arrived in Georgia on September 29. He was detained in Tbilisi on October 1 and put in jail in the city of Rustavi soon afterwards, where he went on a hunger strike. On November 8, he was transferred to the prison hospital in Tbilisi's Gldani district without the consent of his lawyers or family. On November 20, Saakashvili was transferred to a military hospital in Gori, where he stopped his hunger strike. Saakashvili declared a second hunger strike in the Rustavi prison on February 21, demanding qualified treatment.

Saakashvili is implicated in several criminal cases in Georgia. He says his detention is illegal and that he has been framed.