In Tbilisi, tens of thousands of people took to the streets demanding the release of Mikhail Saakashvili

The second President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, in turn, called on the Georgian authorities are guided by the principles of humanism in resolving the situation with the arrest of Mikhail Saakashvili.

“I really want the leadership of democratic Georgia, first of all, to see in the personality of Mikhail Saakashvili not their political opponent, but the world-recognized architect of unique reforms. It is largely thanks to them that Georgia has come closer to European values, among which humanism is absolutely unconditional. Finally, I urge Mikhail himself to end the hunger strike. I know him as a determined fighter and a Christian believer. But to exhaust oneself means to lose strength, without which the struggle becomes impossible in the future, ”Kuchma said.

Saakashvili returned to Georgia ahead of the municipal elections. This is his first visit to the country in eight years. On the evening of October 1, he was arrested and sent to prison, where he went on a hunger strike.

At home, five criminal cases were brought against Saakashvili, including abuse of authority and embezzlement. In two of them, he was previously found guilty in absentia. The ex-president called the sentences against himself fabricated, in particular, by the order of Vladimir Putin. The Georgian prosecutor’s office indicated that Saakashvili faces at least six years in prison, given the sentences already passed. Saakashvili led Georgia from 2004 to 2013.