Georgian justice minister accuses Polish doctor of trying to take Saakashvili's bio sample out of clinic illegally

TBILISI. July 14 (Interfax) - One of the Polish doctors, who examined Mikheil Saakashvili at the Vivamedi clinic on July 12, has been detained on leaving the facility in relation to an attempt at illegal removal of a biological sample of the former Georgian president, Justice Minister Rati Bregadze told a briefing on Friday.

"We call on everyone to refrain from doing anything provocative and unlawful. Because the Polish Embassy was involved with the process of the doctors' visit in Georgia and was their reference, we asked the Georgian foreign minister to hear the position of the embassy in relation to this incident," Bregadze said.

The doctor in question tried to take out the sample wrapped in a napkin inside a put-on boot.

On July 12, the Polish doctors spent seven hours examining Saakashvili in his ward, and left the hospital without any comment. They already flew out of Georgia.

Saakashvili secretly arrived in Georgia on September 29, 2021. On October 1, he was held in Tbilisi and placed into a jail in the town of Rustavi where he went on hunger strike. On November 8, without consulting his relatives and lawyers, Saakashvili was moved to a prison hospital in Tbilisi's Gldani district. On November 20, he was transferred to a military hospital in Gori. On May 12 last year, Saakashvili was moved to Vivamedi where he is staying to this day.

In Georgia Saakashvili is a subject of several criminal cases. He said that his detention was illegal and the charges against him were falsified.