TBILISI – Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, jailed in Rustavi, has decided to stop cooperating with doctors, Saakashvili’s lawyer Giorgi Gelkhauri said.
“Today, I will stop taking the drugs that are helping me through my hunger strike and will also stop testing,” Saakashvili said in a statement published by his lawyer.
Saakashvili said that the Georgian authorities have disregarded the main recommendation of the panel of doctors, i.e., his transfer to a city clinic.
The lawyer could not say why Saakashvili has decided to end cooperation with the doctors, although he reaffirmed readiness to do so on Oct. 28 night.
In addition, the ex-president urges his supporters to take part in the second round of local elections on Oct. 30.
Saakashvili, currently a citizen of Ukraine, secretly arrived in Georgia from Ukraine on Sept. 29. He was detained in Tbilisi on Oct. 1 and is currently being held in a Rustavi prison.
Georgia earlier declared Saakashvili wanted as a person convicted in absentia in several criminal cases and treated as a suspect in some others. Saakashvili has described his detention as unlawful and the charges brought against him as falsified. He has been on hunger strike for almost a month.
