Ex-Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili poisoned in jail by Putin, family claim. He is in Georgian jail for allegedly ‘politically motivated’ corruption charges.
Saakashvili was in court via video looking very frail – he wants treatment abroad.
He had been sentenced to six years in prison on October 1 last year after being accused of abuse of power, charges his supporters say are politically motivated.
Mr Saakashvili’s lawyers have revealed that samples of mercury and arsenic have been found in his system according to a report by an American toxicologist.
His lawyers obtained hair and nail samples after a recent visit to the prison in Georgia.
His son Eduard told the EU parliament that his father should be allowed to seek treatment in another country and ‘there is indications that he has heavy metal poisoning, mercury and arsenic, in his body. So the situation is really urgent.’
The report says Mr Saakashvili’s poor health is ‘the result of heavy metal poisoning’ and that it was not possible for them to be in his system as a result of medical treatment, according to Radio Free Europe.
Continuing the analysis, Professor David Smith said: ‘To a reasonable degree of certainty, these agents were introduced after Mikheil Saakashvili’s incarceration.’
Putin once said he would ‘hang him by his balls’ during Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 which was successfully successfully repelled by then-President Saakashvili.
His mother Giuli Alasania has said her son is ‘on the verge of death’, suggesting the Russian state has poisoned their ‘enemy’.
But she said in early December that she wanted to make her point ‘clear’ that they are not accusing the Georgian government of poisoning her son, adding that ‘if deadly poisoning really took place’, it is in the ‘style of a foreign country… who considers Misha as an enemy’.
First convicted in absence in 2018, Saakashvili worked for different Ukrainian governments, including Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration, before returning home and being detained in 2021.
Speaking to CNN, Saakashvili’s lawyer Massimo D’Angelo said Putin was ‘absolutely’ behind his client’s rapidly deteriorating health.
‘People forget that in 2008 he did what he is doing now to Ukraine to Georgia – under cover of darkness he invaded Georgia.’
And just like President Zelensky is doing today in Ukraine, Saakashvili stood up and fought back, and because of this the Kremlin and Putin specifically became his arch-nemesis, number one enemy.
Zelenskiy asked that Saakashvili, 54, be transferred to a medical facility in Ukraine, Europe or the United States.
Saakashvili, who is being treated in a Tbilisi clinic, last week declared a new hunger strike in protest at not being allowed to attend a Tbilisi court hearing by video link.
He called it off hours later after being urged to do so by members of the European Parliament.
The court heard opening arguments from prosecutors before it adjourned until Dec. 22.
Georgian authorities say Saakashvili is ‘simulating’ the seriousness of his condition to try to secure his release. Saakashvili has not been seen in public for months.
The European Union has called reports about Saakashvili’s health ‘worrying’ and called on the government to provide medical care.
Political poisonings have been connected to Putin and his government in the past.
