A Tbilisi city court has ordered Mikheil Saakashvhili to remain in custody, an Interfax correspondent reported.

The hearing on whether the ex-president of Georgia can be released or have his prison sentence deferred began in December last year. More than twenty doctors who monitored him at the Vivamed clinic, were questioned as witnesses, including foreign medics who diagnosed Saakashvili with heavy metal poisoning, dementia and emaciation.

The foreign doctors recommended specialist treatment in the United States or Europe.

Saakashvili's Vivamed physicians think otherwise. They say their patient is not suffering from any disruption of vital functions.

According to representatives from the ruling Georgian Dream party, Saakashvili feigns illness and is ruining his health on purpose by rejecting the services of Georgian doctors and eating minimum of food.