UNM Demands Permission to Visit Saakashvili

At a briefing in Parliament today, UNM parliamentary faction leader Tina Bokuchava announced that 46 MPs had written to Speaker Shalva Papuashvili to explain why he was abusing his power and preventing Georgian MPs from visiting President Saakashvili. She noted that none of the MPs had been able to visit Saakashvili for several months.

She said that yesterday’s footage answered the question of why. She said the reason is that the third President’s health is extremely poor, “they want to hide the truth and keep him in isolation”- added the MP.  The demand is to immediately allow the members of Parliament, as well as members of the European Parliament and the Ukrainian Public Defender, who have been trying to visit him for months, be allowed to visit the third president immediately “so that the world knows the truth about the president’s health”.

Bokuchava also appealed to political parties and citizens, regardless of their political views, to join the rally planned for tonight near the Vivamedi clinic where he is being held, to protest against the treatment of Saakashvili and demand his release. She stressed that Saakashvili is today the prisoner of Russian President Putin. She appealed to protest to let the Russian regime know that Russian revanchism will not be tolerated in Georgia.

Yesterday, Saakashvili’s sickly and weak appearance as he attended the court hearing from afar caused a stir in and outside the country, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanding in the strongest terms his release to Ukraine (Saakashvili is a Ukrainian citizen) and instructing to summon the Georgian ambassador to Ukraine.

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