11:18 30.10.2021

If necessary, Saakashvili may be transported to prison hospital by helicopter - justice minister

2 min read
If necessary, Saakashvili may be transported to prison hospital by helicopter - justice minister

The Georgian penitentiary service is prepared for any scenarios if former President Mikheil Saakashvili needs to be transferred to a prison hospital, Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze said.

"If he requires hospitalization, he'll be transferred to a prison hospital," Bregadze said on the Imedi TV channel on Friday evening.

"If necessary, we'll transport Saakashvili to the prison hospital by helicopter to ensure his security," Bregadze said, in commenting on the State Security Service findings that some radical groups might prevent Saakashvili's transfer from the Rustavi jail to the prison hospital on the grounds of the Gldani prison in Tbilisi.

Bregadze also denied Saakashvili's assertion that he refused medical aid and will not take medicine.

"It's for doctors to assess Saakashvili's health status, but at the present time, the inmate Saakashvili is continuing to receive treatment, and his vital parameters are normal," Bregadze said.

A team of emergency doctors with the necessary mobile equipment is on duty at the Rustavi prison round the clock, he said.

Bregadze cited a panel of doctors believing that Saakashvili's health condition does not require hospitalization at present.

Saakashvili, former Georgian president and currently a citizen of Ukraine, secretly arrived in Georgia from Ukraine on September 29. He was detained in Tbilisi on October 1 and is currently being held in a Rustavi prison.

Georgia earlier declared Saakashvili wanted as a person convicted in absentia in several criminal cases and treated as a suspect in some others. The Georgian authorities warned repeatedly that he would be detained immediately after he crossed the border. Saakashvili has described his detention as unlawful and the charges brought against him as falsified.

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