Former President of Georgia and governor of Odessa, Ukraine, Mikheil Saakashvili, shocked the world in an online court appearance this week in which he appeared on the brink of death, barely recognizable due to weight loss and what he claimed was poisoning.
Saakashvili, a staunch opponent of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin who led Georgia during the Russian invasion of 2008, has been imprisoned in his home country since 2021 on charges of alleged “abuse of power” during his presidency, as well as illegal entry into the country, a violation incurred while he was a stateless person. He similarly barreled into Ukraine while stateless with the help of a supportive mob, who kept border patrol agents from blocking him despite his lack of passport or any documentation showing he is a citizen of any country.
He was sentenced to six years in prison on charges he insisted were the product of a pro-Putin government attempting to silence opposition, not the result of any legitimate investigation into his activities or criminal activity on his part.
While a former Georgian president, Saakashvili does not have Georgian citizenship; he lost it when being appointed governor of Odessa in 2015. He lost his Ukrainian citizen after he began using his position to use then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of corruption, leaving him stateless. Current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky restored his citizenship and demanded this week that he be returned “home.”
On Monday, Saakashvili denied the vague allegations against him once more and claimed to be tortured and poisoned in prison. He appeared significantly thinner than he had been prior to being arrested – he claimed to weigh about 132 pounds, as opposed to about 264 pounds before his arrest – and lifted his shirt to show his scars and the extent of his deterioration.
Saakashvili has repeatedly accused the Georgian government of trying to kill him on Putin’s orders. Most recently, in March, he and his attorneys told the United Kingdom’s Sky News that the government has poisoned him.
“I was initially 120 kilogrammes, [264 pounds] now I am 64 [141 pounds], if I become less than 60 [132 pounds] doctors predict multiple organ failure,” Saakashvili told Sky News. “I am in bed all the time, my bones are disintegrating and it gives excruciating pain.”
His attorney compared Saakashvili to “a prisoner in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany.”
The Ukrainian government, and Zelensky personally, responded rapidly to the latest footage of the former Ukrainian governor, demanding his freedom and return to Ukraine.
Supporters of Georgia’s jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili rally outside a clinic, where the politician is being held, to demand his liberation in Tbilisi on July 4, 2023, a day after he appeared extremely emaciated in a court hearing. (VANO SHLAMOV/AFP via Getty)
“Right now, Russia is killing Ukrainian citizen Mykhailo Saakashvili at the hands of the Georgian authorities,” Zelensky said in a message on Twitter, using the Ukrainian version of Saakashvili’s first name. “We have repeatedly called on the official Tbilisi to stop this abuse and agree on Saakashvili’s return to Ukraine. Our partners, in coordination with Ukraine, have also offered various rescue options.”
Zelensky summoned Georgia’s ambassador to Ukraine “to express our strong protest and to ask him to leave Ukraine within 48 hours to hold consultations with his capital.”
“Once again, I call on the Georgian authorities to hand over Ukrainian citizen Mykhailo Saakashvili to Ukraine for the necessary treatment and care. And I urge our partners to address this situation and not ignore it and save this man. No government in Europe has the right to execute people, life is a basic European value,” his message concluded.
In a separate video message, Zelensky accused the Georgian government of killing on behalf of Russia.
“Today, the world once again saw the Kremlin unfortunately, at the hands of the current Georgian government is killing Ukrainian citizen Mykhailo Saakashvili. Human life is the highest value, and we cannot allow Mykhailo to simply be killed,” Zelensky asserted, asking Georgia to “transfer Ukrainian citizen Mykhailo Saakashvili to Ukraine for the necessary treatment and care.”
The Georgian Foreign Ministry condemned Zelensky, calling his expulsion of the Georgian ambassador “regrettable” and “incomprehensible.”
“Against the background of such developments, the decision of the Ukrainian authorities significantly harms the strategic relations of the two countries and constitutes a direct interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state,” the Foreign Ministry asserted, calling for Ukraine to “reconsider its decision and make efforts to further develop the historically friendly relations between the two countries.”
Saakashvili’s journey from presidency to prison was a dramatic one, with major detours in Ukraine and the United States. The government of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko granted Saakashvili the governorship of Odessa, a major port region, in 2015 with a mandate to eradicate corruption – a strange decision widely accepted in the aftermath of the 2014 Euromaidan rebellion that resulted in the ouster of pro-Putin then-President Viktor Yushchenko and Poroshenko’s ascent. Saakashvili used his office to accuse Poroshenko himself of corruption, however, resulting in the Ukrainian president stripping him of citizenship. As Georgia had already revoked Saakashvili’s citizenship when he became Ukrainian, this rendered Saakashvili a stateless person for years.
Saakashvili, who was expelled from Ukraine, ultimately made a dramatic return in 2018 that resulted in multiple failed attempts to arrest him, as mobs of supporters fought off police and, on one occasion, dragged Saakashvili out of a police car after he had already been arrested.
Saakashvili spent time in an anti-Poroshenko protest tent city in Kyiv and made speeches against the Ukrainian political establishment, accusing it of corruption, from the rooftops of the capital. One of his failed arrests occurred on a rooftop.
Kyiv ultimately succeeded in arresting and deporting him to Georgia, where his current prison time began.
Current President Volodymyr Zelensky, who defeated Poroshenko in 2019 in part on an anti-corruption campaign, restored Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship and has repeatedly demanded his freedom. Prior to becoming president, Zelensky became famous in Ukraine for his starring role in Servant of the People, a sitcom in which he played the president. The show’s first season featured a scene in which Zelensky’s character’s aides repeatedly recommended Georgian people for high-ranking government positions, mocking Saakashvili’s tenure in Odessa.
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