Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia requests ex-president Saakashvili to stop hunger strike

04/11/2021

17:23

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Georgian Patriarch Ilia II, who is the most trusted figure in the country according to public polls, has for the second time requested the country’s former president, Mikheil Saakashvili, to suspend his hunger strike.

Saakashvili, who was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1 after eight years in political exile, has been on hunger strike for 35 days in Rustavi Prison No.12, stating that he is a ‘political prisoner.’

The Patriarchate’s spokesperson, Mikael Botkoveli, came to the prison earlier today and gave the patriarch’s letter to Saakashvili.

"His Holiness asks and advises Saakashvili to stop the hunger strike in the letter,” Botkoveli told journalists at the prison.

To be informed, Mikheil Saakashvili, who is a citizen of Ukraine and chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, says he returned to Georgia to help his UNM party remove Georgian Dream from power.

He has been on hunger strike since his arrest in Tbilisi on October 1.

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