"Sometimes, unexpected things happen. There is some undying hope. I hope for a miracle," says Giuli Alasania, the mother of former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili.
After covertly returning to Georgia, he was arrested and imprisoned. However, his medical situation has been worsening for months, and even more severe than this – an independent checkup that his attorneys scheduled determined the former president was poisoned by heavy metals.
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In a phone interview conducted from Tbilisi, Professor Alasania said her son, the former president, is dying in front of her and the authorities have been denying him proper care. They have also refused to release him from prison to get appropriate treatment outside Georgia. "I see him twice a day," says Alasania, a reputable expert in Georgian history and the president of the University of Georgia. "He cannot stand on his feet and basically lies in the same position all day. His skin color is horrendous, greenish. He is constantly losing weight. He is unable to eat, even when he wants to."
Saakashvili was elected President of Georgia in 2004 after the Rose Revolution. He made comprehensive reforms in government, economy, and education; fought rampant corruption (in his time, Georgia's ranking in corruption improved by 82 places); and – perhaps more important than anything else – promoted an agenda of becoming closer with the West and moving closer to NATO. Following Russia's invasion of Georgia in 2008, Saakashvili became Vladimir Putin's personal enemy, who swore he would "hang him (Saakashvili) by his testicles."
After losing the elections in 2012, Saakashvili fled to Ukraine, where he managed to become the governor of the Odesa Oblast, get into a tangle with Ukraine's president at the time, Petro Poroshenko, and get appointed as the leader of the National Reform Council. In 2021, he secretly returned to Georgia, stowing away on a sour cream cargo container, hoping to spark hope in the hearts of the supporters of his party, the United National Movement, in the municipal elections. However, he was arrested and imprisoned so that he could serve the six-year sentence he received in absentia under the pretext of abusing his power. According to his supporters, this is political persecution. Since being imprisoned, Saakashvili went on hunger strikes several times to protest his imprisonment conditions. Ultimately, he was transferred to a clinic, where he has continued serving his sentence.
Despite being transferred, Saakashvili's condition has continued to worsen. His American attorney, Massimo D'Angelo, visited him in October, along with a team of American doctors who took hair and fingernail samples from him and even did a biopsy on him. "We sent the samples to a laboratory in the US, where traces of mercury and arsenic were found in his body," D'Angelo said in a phone call from New York. "He suffers from seizures, and according to his doctors, this is due to his poisoning and the poison's damage to his brain. Saakashvili's condition is bad, and he urgently needs to undergo detoxification."
Q: If Saakashvili was poisoned, who did this, and how did they do it?
"We have no concrete information on the matter. He was held in various facilities in Georgia. What we do know is that the ruling Georgian Dream party and its architect, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia, are very pro-Russian. If we look at past cases, poison was mixed into the inmate's food or drink, released slowly into the body, and causes the symptoms we now see in the former president." The Saakashvili's team of attorneys is demanding the postponement of the serving of his sentence to allow him to undergo life-saving treatment abroad. Their demand has even received support in the form of a declaration by the European Parliament.
The authorities in Tbilisi claimed they offered Saakashvili a toxicology examination, but he refused. Irakli Kobakhidze, leader of the Georgian Dream party, argued that the president's release will "harm Georgia's stability" and added that Saakashvili is merely "pretending and not doing it professionally." "How can he be pretending if he constantly has the fever?" Saakashvili's mother angrily told Israel Hayom. "A nurse sits beside him, his temperature is taken, and it is always high. How can he be pretending? In the meantime, he is suffering from seizures. Last Thursday, he lost consciousness and hit his head when he attempted to walk to the bathroom. He took only two steps, but he had difficulty taking them. This can end badly at any given moment because, on the one hand, the toxins need to be removed from his body, but on the other hand, because of the number of things he is diagnosed with, this cannot be done in Georgia, let along while imprisoned" (experts of a non-governmental organization, who also examined Saakashvili's medical condition, arrived at the same conclusion – D.B.).
Q: In your opinion, why are they not allowing him to leave to receive treatment?
"This is political revenge; they are trying to get rid of him. Misha was punished because he tried to build a successful government in the post-Soviet realm and dedicated all his energy to becoming closer to the West. The Russian invasion took place in 2008, and even then, he did not give up and kept Georgia sovereign, but he also predicted that the war was only the beginning. Putin threatened to hang him from a certain area of his body, and practically speaking, Russia has never left."
Protests were held outside Georgian embassies recently demanding Saakashvili's release. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to Tbilisi to allow him to receive Saakashvili. Similar demands were made by President of Moldova Maia Sandu and ambassadors of the European Union and the United States in Tbilisi.
Q: If you could speak with the authorities, what would you say to them?
"I don't think they will hear me," Alasania sighed, "They have all the information. My son is withering away, and I see this daily."
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