A draft of a plea to Georgia to pardon Mikheil Saakashvili, a jailed former Georgian president who became a Ukrainian citizen and briefly governed Odesa region, was registered with the Ukrainian parliament on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th July, 2023) A draft of a plea to Georgia to pardon Mikheil Saakashvili, a jailed former Georgian president who became a Ukrainian citizen and briefly governed Odesa region, was registered with the Ukrainian parliament on Thursday.
It is addressed to Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili and the European Union.
A note that accompanies the plea invokes humanitarian law and calls on Georgia to show mercy to the Ukrainian citizen, whose health raised concerns following his recent appearance at a court hearing in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.
Saakashvili was sentenced to six years in jail in absentia in 2018 for abuse of power and embezzlement, among other charges. He was arrested after returning to Georgia in 2021 and went on several hunger strikes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sent the Georgian ambassador to Ukraine home in protest over Saakashvili's treatment in early July after photos of the emaciated 55-year-old appeared online.
