Pro-Western former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili ‘close to death’ after alleged prison poisoning
The former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili has told Sky News he is approaching death in the hospital he has been moved to from jail.
In a moment of rare media access, the former leader also delivered a warning to the people of Georgia after days of protests had swept through the country.
An appeal trial last month heard claims from an independent expert that Mr Saakashvili had been poisoned while in jail.
Georgian authorities reject that possibility, and will not let him be transferred for treatment in Europe.
Sky News was denied access to the hospital but was able to pass Mr Saakashvili questions via his lawyer, and receive handwritten responses in reply.
Asked how close to death he was, Mr Saakashvili said: “I was initially 120 kilogrammes, now I am 64, if I become less than 60 doctors predict multiple organ failure.”
As for his health, he said: “I am in bed all the time, my bones are disintegrating and it gives excruciating pain.”
From 2018: Georgia president Mikheil Saakashvili says the West should fear Putin
His lawyer Shalva Khachapuridze said his client’s condition is worsening every day.
“It’s an awful scene,” Mr Khachapuridze told Sky News. “He looks like a prisoner in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany.”
Mr Saakashvili sent a message to the thousands of demonstrators who have been on the streets protesting proposed new laws criticised as pro-Russian.
“Stay very vigilant, be ready to mobilise at short notice, because of the vengeful mood of the oligarchs’ regime,” he wrote in his correspondence with Sky News.
From hospital Mikheil Saakashvili answers questions from Sky News sent in a letter via his lawyer
Zelenskyy and Macron weigh in
The government has now withdrawn the controversial bill.
But the West is closely watching what happens to Mr Saakashvili, reading it as a sign of the country’s true loyalties towards Russia or Europe.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke out on Mr Saakashvili’s fate this week, saying: “Former political leaders in Georgia who are being detained and in poor health should be freed or the health situation checked.”
A European parliament resolution in February demanded his release and pardon and warned Georgia the issue would be seen as a “litmus test” for its commitment to European values.
Last month the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for the release of the former Georgian leader.
“Right now, Ukrainian citizen, former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili is being slowly killed,” President Zelenskyy said.
“Ukraine offered solutions. I urge the world to help save [Saakashvili’s] life and prevent his execution.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held up photos of Mr Saakashvili during a press conference in February
Mikheil Saakashvili rose to fame as a dynamic young politician who led his country through the so-called “Rose Revolution” in 2003, when Georgians rose up and shook off Russian domination.
He became a hero in the West for resisting aggression from Moscow, which was sending tanks into Georgia.
But he was accused of abuse of power and his administration was overshadowed by accusations he plotted the death of opponents in custody.
Government is ‘doing everything’ needed for Mikheil Saakashvili
The ruling Georgian Dream party insists Mr Saakashvili must serve his sentence and is receiving enough care. Authorities say his health problems are caused by his refusal to eat enough food.
“We do hope that it (his death) will not happen and his needs are properly addressed,” Georgian Dream MP Maka Botchorishvili told Sky News.
“We do believe that the government is doing everything that Saakashvili as a prisoner in Georgia has absolute rights to,” she said during an interview in Tbilisi.
“Whatever he needs it is done, health-wise… and needs that are there.”
Georgian Dream Party MP Maka Botchorishvili says Mr Saakashvili is being well cared for
But Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say the Georgian government is denying him “adequate medical care”, putting him at grave risk of dying.
A group of medical experts appointed by the Georgian public defender confirmed Saakashvili’s condition was severe and required urgent change to his ineffective treatment.
Poland and Ukraine have offered to welcome Mikheil Saakashvili for medical care.
But the Georgian government says it doubts he is as ill as he claims and says his release could destabilise the country.
If they are wrong, and he is close to multiple organ failure, the fallout of his imminent death could significantly set back the country’s chances of joining the European Union.
A lot is at stake as the world watches the fate of the former Georgian leader.
In mid-May, the World Health Organisation assessed that there were “nearly half a million people in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death”.
“This is one of the world’s worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time,” its report concluded.
Warning: This article contains images of an emaciated child which some readers may find distressing
Israel‘s decision this week to reverse the siege and allow “a basic level of aid” into Gaza should help ease the immediate crisis.
But the number of aid trucks getting in, so far fewer than 100 per day, is considered dramatically too few by aid organisations working in Gaza, and the United Nations accuses Israel of continuing to block vital items.
Israel-Gaza latest: Gaza enduring ‘atrocious death and destruction’, UN boss warns
“Strict quotas are being imposed on the goods we distribute, along with unnecessary delay procedures,” said UN secretary general Antonio Guterres in New York on Friday.
“Essentials, including fuel, shelter, cooking gas and water purification supplies, are prohibited. Nothing has reached the besieged north.”
Nineteen of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational, all of them are overwhelmed with the number of patients and a lack of supplies.
Baby Aya at Rantisi hospital in northern Gaza is dangerously thin
“Today, we receive between 300 to 500 cases daily, with approximately 10% requiring admission. This volume of inpatient cases far exceeds the capacity of Rantisi hospital, as the facility is not equipped to accommodate such large numbers,” Jall al Barawi, a doctor at the hospital, told us.
At least 94% of the hospitals have sustained some damage, some considerable, according to the UN.
Jall al Barawi, a doctor at Rantisi hospital
Paramedic crews are close to running out of fuel to drive ambulances.
The lack of food, after an 11-week blockade, has left thousands malnourished and increasingly vulnerable to surviving injuries or recovering from other conditions.
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Children are the worst affected.
Our team in Gaza filmed with baby Aya at the Rantisi hospital in northern Gaza. She is now three months old and dangerously thin.
Her skin stretches over her cheekbones and eye sockets on her gaunt, pale face. Her nappy is too big for her emaciated little body.
Aya’s nappy is too big for her emaciated little body.
Lethal spiral
Her mother Sundush, who is only 19 herself, cannot get enough food to produce breastmilk. Baby formula is scarce.
Aya, like so many other young children, cannot get the vital nutrition she needs to grow and develop.
It’s a lethal spiral.
This is what Aya looked like shortly after she was born
“My daughter was born at a normal weight, 3.5kg,” Sundush tells us.
“But as the war went on, her weight dropped significantly. I would breastfeed her, she’d get diarrhoea. I tried formula – same result. With the borders closed and no food coming in, I can’t eat enough to give her the nutrients she needs.”
“I brought her to the hospital for treatment, but the care she needs isn’t available.
“The doctor said her condition is very serious. I really don’t want to lose her, because I lost my husband and she’s all I have left of him. I don’t want to lose her.”
Read more:
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Aya and her mother Sundush
Some of the aid entering Gaza now is being looted. It is hard to know whether that is by Hamas or desperate civilians. Maybe a combination of the two.
The lack of aid creates an atmosphere of desperation, which eventually leads to a breakdown in security as everyone fights to secure food for themselves and their families.
Only by alleviating the desperation can the security situation improve, and the risk of famine abate.
World
Police launch ‘major operation’ after 12 people injured in knife attack at Hamburg train station
Twelve people are reported to have been injured after a knife attack at Hamburg’s central train station.
A “major operation” has been launched and a suspect was arrested, police said in a post on X.
The identity of the suspect has not been revealed.
Reports in Germany said the suspected attacker was a woman.
The fire service said six of the injured were in a life-threatening condition, three others were seriously hurt, and another three sustained minor injuries, news agency dpa reported.
Bild newspaper said the motive for the attack was so far unknown.
Hamburg is Germany’s second biggest city, with the train station being a hub for local, regional and long-distance trains.
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The man suspected of shooting dead two Israeli embassy workers in Washington DC leaned over and fired at them repeatedly after they fell to the ground, the FBI has said.
Elias Rodriguez, 31, has been charged with murdering Sarah Milgrim and her boyfriend Yaron Lischinsky, after they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday night.
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Footage has showed Rodriguez, from Chicago, chanting “free, free Palestine” as he was arrested.
It later emerged Mr Lischinsky had bought a ring and planned to propose to Ms Milgrim.
Authorities are investigating the killings as both a hate crime against the Jewish community and terrorism.
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Shootings suspect shouts ‘free Palestine!’
‘I did it for Gaza’
It comes as the FBI has said in a charging document on Thursday that surveillance footage shows how Ms Milgrim and Mr Lischinsky died.
Rodriguez is allegedly seen passing the couple after they left the museum before shooting them in the back.
The FBI says the footage then shows him leaning over the couple and firing at them several more times after they fell to the ground.
The video then shows Ms Milgrim attempting to crawl away before “(Rodriguez) followed behind her and fired again”, the charging document says.
The suspected gunman is then accused of reloading his weapon and firing at Ms Milgrim as she sat up.
According to the charging document, Rodriguez then jogged to the museum and once inside asked to speak to a police officer before stating that he “did it” and that he was unarmed.
He is then said to have told police: “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, I am unarmed.”
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DC shooting: Father pays tribute to ‘perfect’ daughter
Suspect ‘expressed admiration’ for fatal protest
The court document also states that 21 expended 9mm bullet cases were found at the scene and the gun was slide-locked – meaning it was empty of ammunition.
An empty gun magazine was also recovered from the scene.
The FBI says it has obtained travel records which show Rodriguez flew from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to the Reagan National in Washington DC on Tuesday with the gun in his checked baggage.
Rodriguez had bought the weapon in the state of Illinois on 6 March 2020, according to the charging document.
The FBI has said that while Rodriguez was in custody he “expressed admiration” for a US Air Force member who set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC on 25 February 2024.
Aaron Bushnell died in the apparent act of protest against the war in Gaza.
Rodriguez also told police he bought a ticket to the museum around three hours before the event that was attended by Ms Milgrim and Mr Lischinsky.
Read more:
Why Trump will worry about attacker being glorified
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Starmer ‘on wrong side of history’
During a brief court appearance at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington DC today, Rodriguez was charged with two counts of first degree murder and with the murder of foreign officials.
He has also been charged with causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Rodriguez was told he could face life in prison or the death penalty if he is found guilty.
He remained calm throughout the hearing, paying attention to the proceedings throughout and confirmed that he is asking the court to appoint an attorney on his behalf.
He will next appear at a federal court in Washington DC on 18 June.
Murdered couple ‘were perfect for each other’
Meanwhile, Ms Milgrim’s father, Robert, says he feared his daughter might be in danger when he saw news alerts of a fatal shooting in Washington DC.
Ms Milgrim’s mother Nancy opened a phone locator app and saw Ms Milgrim was at the Capital Jewish Museum.
“Shortly after that, the Israeli ambassador called us on my wife’s phone,” Mr Milgrim told Sky News’ partner network NBC News, fighting back tears.
He added that it was the ambassador who told them Mr Lischinksy had bought a ring and was planning to propose to Ms Milgrim.
“They were perfect for each other, he said.
Mr Milgrim continued: “They just brought us joy, and her memory, which is a blessing, will continue to bring us joy – but it’s not the same as her not being here.”
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