{"id":1329171,"date":"2022-02-22T21:25:21","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T02:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1329171"},"modified":"2022-02-22T21:25:51","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T02:25:51","slug":"ex-georgian-president-during-2008-putin-invasion-starts-hunger-strike-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ex-georgian-president-during-2008-putin-invasion-starts-hunger-strike-in-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Georgian President During 2008 Putin Invasion Starts Hunger Strike in Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fex-georgian-president-during-2008-putin-invasion-starts-hunger-strike-in-prison%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1329171&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili \u2014 who has been imprisoned in Georgia since October 2021 on corruption charges he denies \u2014 launched a hunger strike on Monday to protest the Georgian government\u2019s \u201ctreatment of him,\u201d particularly poor medical care, Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty (RFE\/RL) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rferl.org\/a\/saakashvili-georgia-hunger-strike\/31714503.html\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI declare an indefinite hunger strike from today,\u201d Saakashvili said in a statement issued to media outlets on February 21.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe hunger strike is a reaction to how the regime treats me and our people,\u201d Saakashvili said, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kutaisipost.ge\/ka\/akhali-ambebi\/article\/23033-mikheil-saakashvili-shimshilobas-itsyebs\">quoted<\/a> by Georgia\u2019s <em>Kutaisi Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI demand proper medical assistance as the Ombudswoman-established Concilium and the [Tbilisi-based nongovernmental] Empathy [Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture] have demanded,\u201d Saakashvili said at a trial for his criminal case on February 21, according to RFE\/RL.<\/p>\n<p>A court in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-georgia-saakashvili-verdict\/georgian-ex-president-sentenced-in-absentia-for-abuse-of-power-idUSKBN1JO2RJ\">convicted<\/a> Saakashvili in absentia on June 28, 2018, of abuse of power by \u201cseeking to cover up evidence about the beating of an opposition member of parliament when he was president,\u201d according to Reuters. Saakashvili received a six-year prison sentence for the abuse of power charges after he was separately sentenced to a three-year prison term in January 2018.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<div id=\"attachment_18634970\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2021\/11\/wi\/ap\/06\/georgia-saakashvili-georgian-opposition-supporters-of-president-mikheil-saakashvili-hold-national.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-18634970 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/georgia-saakashvili-georgian-opposition-supporters-of-president-mikheil-saakashvili-hold-national-1024x683-1.jpg\" alt=\"The Associated Press\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Georgian opposition supporters of former president Mikheil Saakashvili hold national flags and posters with his portraits during a rally in front of the prison where the former president is being held, in Rustavi, about 20 km from the capital Tbilisi, Georgia, Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021. (AP Photo\/Shakh Aivazov)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cSaakashvili was sentenced to a separate three years in prison in January after being convicted of seeking to cover up evidence about the murder of a Georgian banker,\u201d Reuters reported in June 2018.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18196218\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2021\/10\/wi\/ap\/04\/georgia-saakashvili-georgian-opposition-supporters-of-president-mikheil-saakashvili-hold-georgian.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-18196218 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/georgia-saakashvili-georgian-opposition-supporters-of-president-mikheil-saakashvili-hold-georgian-1024x683-1.jpg\" alt=\"The Associated Press\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Georgian opposition supporters of former president Mikheil Saakashvili hold Georgian and Ukrainian national flags during a rally in his support in front of the prison where former president is being held, in Rustavi, about 20 km from the capital Tbilisi, Georgia, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. (AP Photo\/Shakh Aivazov)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Saakashvili rose to power in Georgia during the 2003 <a href=\"https:\/\/nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu\/content\/georgians-overthrow-dictator-rose-revolution-2003\">Rose Revolution<\/a>, which resulted in the resignation of predecessor\u00a0Eduard Shevardnadze, only the second person to hold the office. The ouster of Shevardnadze, a former Soviet politician, was largely interpreted as a popular message of rejection of Russian influence in the country, and Saakashvili won the election in large part due to his stance against Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7757833\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/389u1af.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7757833\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/389u1af.jpg\" alt=\"The Associated Press\" width=\"864\" height=\"577\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Ukrainian Security Service officers detain Mikheil Saakashvili at his house in Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017. (AP Photo\/Evgeniy Maloletka)<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Putin chose to invade Georgia\u2019s restive South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions during Saakashvili\u2019s tenure in 2008.\u00a0The ex-leader \u201cwon the presidency of Georgia in 2004 on a platform that stressed regaining control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two regions that have been under the control of ethnic separatists since the early 1990s,\u201d NPR <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=93573814\">observed<\/a> in August 2008. \u201cThe separatists had the support of Russia, which has provided them with aid and troops who were part of a peacekeeping mission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saakashvili <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-georgia-russia-opposition\/saakashvili-planned-s-ossetia-invasion-ex-minister-idUSLD12378020080914\">failed<\/a> to secure Georgia\u2019s dominance over\u00a0South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which remain under Russian influence to this day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter 2006 we didn\u2019t have the possibility for success by military means \u2026 the Russians had repositioned and improved their military infrastructure in the North Caucasus, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia,\u201d Irakli Okruashvil, Georgia\u2019s Defense Minister under Saakashvili, told the news agency at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Following the end of his presidency in 2013, Saakashvili left his country to serve the presidency of Petro Poroshenko in neighboring Ukraine \u2013 itself the result of a similar uprising against pro-Russian former President Viktor Yanukovych, and currently subject to a very similar Russian move in its Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Saakashvili received Ukrainian citizenship and the governorship of Odessa with a mandate to eradicate Putin-related corruption. Saakashvili <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kyivpost.com\/ukraine-politics\/saakashvili-resigns-accuses-poroshenko-allies-corruption.html\">resigned<\/a> from his position in 2016, accusing Poroshenko himself of corruption. In response, Poroshenko stripped him of Ukrainian citizenship; he had already lost his Georgian citizenship after a pro-Putin government took over there, leaving him stateless.<\/p>\n<p>Saakashvili returned to Georgia on October 1, 2021, following eight years of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/worldviews\/wp\/2015\/05\/30\/self-exiled-former-georgia-president-mikheil-saakashvili-returns-as-governor-of-key-region-in-ukraine\/\">exile<\/a>. He attempted to rally opposition forces ahead of Georgia\u2019s nationwide municipal elections at the time before Georgian security forces arrested Saakashvili for \u201cillegal border crossing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saakashvili recently regained Ukrainian citizenship under current President Zelensky \u2013 a sitcom comedian who handily beat Poroshenko for the presidency amid widespread discontent with the corruption allegations \u2013 who has vowed to work to free Saakashvili from prison.<\/p>\n<p>Saakashvili previously announced a hunger strike in early October 2021 to protest what he described as his \u201cillegal detention\u201d by the Georgian state on October 1, 2021. The politician\u2019s first hunger strike lasted for roughly 50 days before he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/asia\/2021\/11\/20\/imprisoned-georgia-ex-president-saakashvili-ends-50-day-hunger-strike\/\">agreed<\/a> to end it on November 19, 2021, after his request to be transferred from a prison hospital to a military hospital was <a href=\"https:\/\/geotimes.com.ge\/?m=5&#038;news_id=99830&#038;cat_id=23\">met<\/a> by Georgian government authorities. Georgia\u2019s human rights commissioner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/georgia-move-ex-president-saakashvili-military-hospital-tass-2021-11-19\/\">said<\/a> on November 17, 2021, that Saakashvili \u201cneeded to be moved to intensive care to avoid the risk of heart failure, internal bleeding and coma after more than a month and a half on hunger strike.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moscow on February 21 <a href=\"https:\/\/tass.com\/politics\/1407581\">announced<\/a> plans to formally recognize the independence of two Russian-backed separatist states in eastern Ukraine\u2019s Donbas\u00a0region in a move similar to its <a href=\"https:\/\/tass.com\/world\/1007058\">recognition<\/a> of South Ossetia and Abkhazia following the 2008 Russo-Georgian War.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili \u2014 who has been imprisoned in Georgia since October 2021 on corruption charges he denies \u2014 launched a hunger strike on Monday to protest the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1329171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1329171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1329171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1329171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1329171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}