Volodymyr Zelensky showed photos of the ex-president of Georgia, a citizen of Ukraine Mikheil Saakashvili who had painfully lost weight in prison. The president expressed his belief that the Georgian authorities are publicly torturing and killing Saakashvili.
He stated this during a press conference with the President of Austria Alexander van der Bellen in Kyiv.
"I am not discussing the issue of why the former president of Georgia was arrested, and what the consequences of this are for politics and democracy in Georgia. This is their internal matter. I am talking about the arrest of Ukrainian citizen Mikheil Saakashvili, who is publicly tortured daily. I think their goal is to kill Saakashvili," Zelensky noted.
According to the president, Saakashvili was first poisoned, and now he is being slowly killed.
- Ukrainian citizen Mikheil Saakashvili was detained in Georgia on October 1, 2021, when he returned to his homeland after an eight-year absence. He was charged with illegal border crossing, which, according to the investigation, he committed on September 28, when he secretly arrived at the port of Poti from Ukraine on a vessel carrying a truckload of dairy products. The article for illegal crossing of the border of Georgia provides up to five years of imprisonment.
- Ukraine officially recognized Saakashvili as a victim in the case of improper treatment in detention.