The US State Department calls on the Georgian authorities to consider the recommendations of an independent group of doctors assembled by the Ombudsman to assess the state of health of ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili, who is in prison. This is stated in a statement by the head of the press service of the American Foreign Ministry, Ned Price.
"We have been closely monitoring how former President Mikheil Saakashvili has been treated since his arrest on October 1. We highly appreciate the work of the Public Defender of Georgia in providing supervision, forming an independent group of doctors to monitor Saakashvili's health and evaluate medical supplies in the prison hospital. We call on the Georgian government to treat Saakashvili fairly and with dignity, as well as to listen to the recommendations of the Public Defender regarding proper treatment," the statement said.
The US State Department also "urges the Georgian government to ensure that Saakashvili has the opportunity to attend all court hearings on current criminal cases in accordance with international law."
"Saakashvili has the right to a fair trial, which includes the opportunity to personally attend court hearings if he sends a request," Price said in a statement.
Mikheil Saakashvili secretly returned to Georgia from Ukraine shortly before the municipal elections. After the change of power in 2012, several criminal cases were initiated against the ex-president in his homeland, which Saakashvili himself considers political. Since the day of his detention on October 1, he has been on a hunger strike in protest.
On November 8, Saakashvili was transferred from a prison in the city of Rustavi to the hospital of the Gldan prison. The defense of the ex-president claims that he was tricked into being taken to a penitentiary institution, subjected to degrading treatment. Referring to the security risks and the prisoner's condition, the Special Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia refused three times to bring the prisoner to trial.
On the 49th day of the hunger strike, Saakashvili lost consciousness in the hospital of the Gldan prison, after which he was transferred to the intensive care unit. The day before, on November 17, a group of doctors under the Georgian Ombudsman Nino Lomjaria assessed Saakashvili's condition as critical, recommending that he be transferred to a private hospital.
The chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Irakli Kobakhidze, called their conclusion a fake, admitting that in the future it could serve as a basis for bringing both Lomjari and members of the council to justice.
Lomjaria later stated that such rhetoric "is an attempt to attack and intimidate an independent constitutional body and its experts, and also contradicts national and international obligations in the field of human rights." The Office of the Public Defender of Georgia called on international organizations and the diplomatic sector to respond to this fact.

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