Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili declared another hunger strike while speaking in court on Monday to protest against what he described as the denial of proper medical care for him.

"Starting today, I am declaring a full open-ended hunger strike in protest against the government's treatment of me and our people. My health is of secondary importance. What counts most is the fate of our people," Saakashvili said.

Saakashvili, former Georgian president and currently a citizen of Ukraine, secretly arrived in Georgia on September 29 and was detained in Tbilisi on October 1 and put in jail in the city of Rustavi soon afterwards, where he declared a hunger strike. On November 8, he was transferred to the prison infirmary in Tbilisi's Gldani district without the consent of his lawyers and family. On November 20, Saakashvili was transferred to a military hospital in Gori, where he stopped his hunger strike. Saakashvili was brought back to the Rustavi prison on December 30.

Saakashvili has been convicted in Georgia in absentia in several criminal cases and is being treated as a suspect in some others. He has described his detention as unlawful and the charges brought against him as falsified.