Saakashvili unable to return to Georgia's political life - justice minister

TBILISI. Oct 31 (Interfax) - Any involvement of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in Georgian political life is out of the question, Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze said.

"Saakashvili's participation in elections is a ridiculous thing. This man was the Georgian president and commander-in-chief yet he abandoned his Georgian citizenship. What kind of his involvement in the political life of our country can we talk about?" Bregadze told reporters on Tuesday.

Reporters asked whether the parliamentary elections due in 2024 would be fair without Saakashvili, the informal leader of the opposition.

"By Georgian laws, Saakashvili, a citizen of Ukraine, has no right to take part in the political life of Georgia," Bregadze said.

The Justice Ministry is waiting for a medical conclusion on Saakashvili's health, so that he could be transferred back to prison from the Vivamedi private clinic in Tbilisi.

"We are expecting a medical conclusion any day, after which Saakashvili will return to the penitentiary and continue to serve his six-year prison term," Bregadze said.

There is no other prisoner in the world to have one's rights protected on such a high level as Saakashvili, Bregadze said. He added that Saakashvili had been serving time since May 12, 2022, in a two-bed room of a private clinic.

Attending physicians and independent Georgian doctors, who examine Saakashvili, say that his health has improved in recent weeks.

Saakashvili secretly arrived in Georgia on September 29, 2021. He was detained in Tbilisi on October 1, 2021, put in prison in the town of Rustavi and subsequently went on hunger strike. He was transferred from the Rustavi prison to a prison infirmary in the Gldani neighborhood of Tbilisi on November 8, 2021 without the consent of his family. Saakashvili was moved to a military hospital in the town of Gori on November 20, 2021, and he ended his hunger strike. On May 12, 2023, he was admitted to the Vivamedi clinic in Tbilisi. He is still a patient at Vivamedi.

There are several criminal cases against Saakashvili ongoing in Georgia. He has called his detention illegal and the charges against him falsified.