In Georgia, Mikheïl Saakashvili's state of health is questioning.
Imprisoned and on hunger strike for several weeks, the country's ex-president said on Monday that he feared for his life after being physically abused by his guards.
They "insulted me, hit me in the neck, pulled me on the ground by the hair," wrote the former leader in a letter to his lawyer, saying that "the purpose" of his transfer Monday in a prison hospital was to "kill" him.
Sentenced for "abuse of power"
Pro-Western president from 2004 to 2013 and now considered the leader of the opposition, Mikheil Saakashvili returned on October 1 to Georgia after an eight-year exile. Immediately arrested, he was imprisoned under a conviction for "abuse of power", which he considers to be purely political. A charismatic and ambivalent figure in Georgian politics, but also in Ukraine, Mikheïl Saakachvili has since observed a hunger strike to protest against his imprisonment. His supporters have been demanding for weeks his release or at least his hospitalization in a civilian establishment.
On Monday, the Georgian prison services announced his transfer to a prison hospital in order to "avoid the deterioration of his state of health" after 39 days of hunger strike.
Several tens of thousands of his supporters demonstrated in Tbilisi after the announcement of his hospitalization.
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