“Traces of mercury and arsenic in the body of the ex-president”

Traces of mercury And arsenic. This is the report of foreign doctors on the body of the former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who have been diagnosed with more than 30 pathologies. “The former president – ​​explained the lawyer Shalva Khachapuridzewho did not provide specific information on the conclusions drawn by the foreign doctors – he lost 30 kilos and developed mobility problems during detention“. Saakashvili he has been under arrest for over a year on various charges against him and last May he was transferred to a clinic for worsening of his health conditions, even following a strike of the hunger, initiated to protest the care medical which, he claims, were not provided to him in prison.

The pro-Western former president of the Georgiawho is also the founder of the opposition party United National Movement and holds Ukrainian citizenship, he led the country from 2004 to 2007 and from 2008 to 2013, while from 2015 to 2016 he was also governor of the Ukrainian region of Odessa. Saakashvili after losing power he began to have trouble with justice at home and in 2018 he was convicted in absence to six years’ imprisonment on charges of abuse of office which various observers judge to be of a political nature. Saakashvili he lived abroad for several years, but last year, on the eve of the local elections in early October, he returned Georgia and was arrested. He says he is innocent, claims that his conviction is political and immediately after his arrest he announced a hunger strike that lasted 50 days, while thousands of people took to the streets demanding his release. “I love life but this strike will go on until the end of my life,” he said. In another post he thanked the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who at the time had promised to obtain his release. “In fact – said the ex President – I am a personal prisoner of Putin and I really appreciate his (Zelensky’s, ed.) firm position in protecting Ukraine, the whole region and all the prisoners of the empire”. In the past Saakashshvili in a courtroom he declared that he had been “tortured, treated inhumanely, beaten and humiliated” in detention. Amnesty International defined the treatment reserved for him “not only selective justice but apparent political revenge”, while the European Court of Human Rights had asked the Georgian authorities to “guarantee the safety in prison” of the opponent “and provide him adequate medical care“.