Droa opposition party leader, Elene Khoshtaria, has gone on hunger strike in the parliament building of Georgia, demanding the transfer of former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvil, to a civil clinic for treatment.
Saakashvili, the third president of Georgia, has been on hunger strike since his arrest in Tbilisi on October 1, and is now demanding his transportation to a civil clinic instead of the government-provided prison hospital.
Khoshtaria says that she has ‘never been Saakashvili's supporter’ and disapproves of many of his actions. However, she says that the government’s attitude to Saakashvili is ‘cynical and unacceptable,’ and that Saakashvili’s life is ‘at risk.’
"I will stay on hunger strike until Saakashvili is transferred to a civil clinic and doctors say that his life is not at risk," Khoshtaria said late yesterday.
Saakashvili’s doctor says the former president has lost 10 percent of his body weight and that a council of doctors will assess his health condition on Friday, Agenda.ge reported.
Khoshtaria was nominated as a joint candidate for the head of Tbilisi City Assembly by the United National Movement, European Georgia, Girchi-More Freedom and Droa opposition parties in recent municipal elections. She left the European Georgia opposition party back in December 2020, shortly after the October 2020 parliamentary elections, to create a new political movement.
Khoshtaria has refused to take up her parliamentary mandate which she received via the party list of the European Georgia opposition party in the 2020 parliamentary elections. She maintains that elections were fabricated by the ruling Georgian Dream party, and refuses to enter the state legislature in protest.
