Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asks Georgian ambassador to Kyiv to 'save' Mikheil Saakashvili

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday urged the Georgian ambassador to Kyiv to return home and make efforts to save Georgia's jailed former president Mikheil Saakashvili after a footage surfaced, showing him looking lean and skinny.

Saakashvili, who was the leader of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, was imprisoned in the year 2021 after coming back from banishment on abuse of power charges that rights groups condemn as politically motivated.

Zelensky made Saakashvili a Ukrainian citizen in the year 2019. He took to Twitter and accused Tbilisi of increasingly cooperating with Moscow.

"Right now, Russia is killing Ukrainian citizen Mykhailo Saakashvili at the hands of the Georgian authorities. 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 said on Twitter.

"Today, I instructed the ministry of foreign affairs to summon the Georgian ambassador to Ukraine, to express our strong protest and to ask him to leave Ukraine within 48 hours to hold consultations with his capital," the tweet read.

He then called on the Georgian authorities to hand over Saakashvili to Ukraine for his necessary treatment.

"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," he further wrote.

During a court hearing, that was aired on television on Monday, Saakashvili lifted his shirt and showed his ribs sticking out from his chest, a hollow abdomen and skin sticking tightly to his bones.

Health of Georgia’s jailed former president Mikheil Saakashvili deteriorating: Doctors

Earlier, in the month of February, doctors had said that the health of Saakashvili was deteriorating due to drastic weight loss.

The doctor added that he weighed 115 kilogrammes when he was jailed in October 2021, which went down to just 67kg.

Saakashvili went into exile to Ukraine, where he spent most of his life after leaving Georgia. After becoming the governor of Ukraine's Odessa region, he renounced his Georgian citizenship in 2015. In 2018, the former president was convicted by a Georgian court on the charge of corruption and abuse of office. He was sentenced to prison for six years.

However, in October 2021, he was arrested when he landed in Georgia from exile. The pro-Western Saakashvili led the Caucasus country from 2004 to 2013. Many rights groups have said that the arrest of Saakashvili was politically motivated. However, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has repeatedly said that she will not pardon him.

(With inputs from agencies)

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