Georgia refuses to admit former hunger striker to hospital
The Georgian government on Thursday rejected doctors' recommendation to hospitalize former President Mikheil Saakashvili, 53, who has been on a hunger strike for three weeks, in order to refuse to be imprisoned after returning from exile.
Health Minister Ekaterina Tikaradze declared that Saakashvili's health condition is "fully stable and satisfactory and does not currently require hospitalization."
On Tuesday evening, a number of doctors examined the former president's health condition and advised that he be taken to the hospital.
Saakashvili, who held the presidency of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, was imprisoned after his return earlier this month from his exile in Ukraine, after being convicted in absentia of "exploiting influence" in a 2018 ruling that the former president describes as political rule.
In protest of his arrest, he went on a hunger strike.
His personal physician, Nikoloz Kipshidze, revealed that Saakashvili had blood problems that made his hunger strike "extremely dangerous".
Saakashvili's lawyer said that the law in Georgia does not allow feeding a hunger striker against his will unless he is unconscious.
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