Mikheil Saakashvili: Poland proposes to examine the former Georgian leader

Ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia was shown on a screen via video link from a clinic during a court hearing in Tbilisi, Georgia. This was to assess a request from Saakashvili's legal team for his release or deferral of his six-year sentence for abuse of power related to health problems. He says that his trial was about politics.

Poland wants to send doctors to Georgia to check on the health of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, who is in prison. Warsaw had earlier offered that Saakashvili be treated in Poland to the Georgian authorities. However, the Georgian ministry of justice did not reply quickly to a request for comment.

A spokesman for the Polish government said there was reason to doubt that Saakashvili, who is 55 years old, was getting good health care from the government there. He has gone on hunger strikes and says that someone poisoned him in prison. 

Sources reported on Sunday that he said he had lost so much weight that doctors were worried he was getting close to a point where he could have organ failure in more than one place.

Mr. Saakashvili's supporters say that Georgian authorities aren't giving him the care he needs, but officials say he's just acting sick to get out of jail early. Piotr Muller, a spokesman for the Polish government, said that a team of Polish aid workers was ready to go to Georgia to "clarify" the situation.

According to sources, Piotr Muller mentioned that they are waiting for an agreement from the Georgian side. He said that the situation with the former president of Georgia's medical care raises serious questions in the international community. The Polish government has suggested that Saakashvili get medical care in Poland. During Georgia's Rose Revolution in 2004, Saakashvili came to power and stayed there until 2013. In 2008, Russia invaded the country, which he was in charge of. 

Later, he went into politics in Ukraine. In 2015 and 2016, he was governor of Odessa. He was found guilty of abuse of power even though he wasn't there to face it. In 2021, he made an unexpected trip back to Georgia and was arrested there. 

Since he went to jail in October of that year, he has lost a lot of weight and is in much worse health. An organization that supports victims of torture in Georgia, Empathy, mentioned of December 1 that the illnesses Saakashvili was diagnosed with were incompatible with imprisonment. Medical professionals from Georgia and elsewhere discovered indications of heavy metal poisoning.

In an interview with sources some weeks later, his son Eduard stated that his father, who was typically entertaining and charismatic, had changed. Last month, world leaders demanded his release, with the Ukrainian president claiming that the current Georgian government was attempting to murder him. 

Saakashvili is still active on social media. On Friday, Putin announced his support for rallies against a contentious draught law that would have labeled non-government organizations and the media as "foreign agents," ultimately leading to the bill's withdrawal.