Poland ready to continue help for ailing former Georgian president
Poland is ready for further actions aimed at helping the imprisoned former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, despite a recent incident involving a Polish doctor, the foreign ministry has said.
The ministry recalled that during a recent visit of Polish doctors to Mikheil Saakashvili at the Vivamedi clinic in Tbilisi, the purpose of which was to help the former president of Georgia, "an unintentional incident, devoid of intentions inconsistent with the agreement, occurred, which was immediately clarified on the spot and also during a meeting with the Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs."
Georgian media reported that the Polish doctor allegedly tried to smuggle a biological sample from the imprisoned former president.
The chargé d’affaires of the Polish embassy in Tbilisi was summoned to the Georgian foreign ministry on Monday, the Polish ministry also said.
"The Polish side expresses satisfaction and appreciates the decisions of the Georgian government regarding the possibility of examining the former President and emphasises the full involvement of Georgian doctors in the process of his treatment," the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
"The Polish side invariably counts on the continuation of cooperation with its Georgian partners and declares its readiness for possible further actions aimed at helping our Georgian partners and the former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili," the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
"In this context, the decision of the Special Penitentiary Service under the Ministry of Justice of Georgia to publish the recording of the search of a Polish doctor and a number of emotional statements by representatives of Georgian state authorities contradict the principles of good cooperation," the ministry wrote.
"The Polish side emphasises that neither the incident nor its disclosure by the Georgian authorities will affect the assessment of the state of health, the activities of Georgian doctors, as well as the process of analysing test results," the ministry added.
Saakashvili, Georgia's president from 2004 to 2013, is serving a six-year prison sentence for abuse of power, which he and his supporters see as a politically motivated move. He was imprisoned in October 2021, after which he went on several hunger strikes. At the end of 2021, he was moved to hospital. In the opinion of Georgian and Western human rights defenders, Saakashvili's health condition is so serious that it is considered to be life-threatening.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced last week that a group of Polish doctors had begun conducting an examination of the former Georgian president. Saakashvili tweeted his thanks to Prime Minister Morawiecki for sending a "very professional medical team".
