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Tens of thousands of Georgians gathered in the capital Tbilisi to demand the release of the imprisoned former president and opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili.
Reciting Saakashvili’s nickname “Misha!” On Thursday, demonstrators waved national flags and crowded the city’s Freedom Square and the main road, Rustaveli Avenue. According to an AFP reporter, the crowd exceeded 50,000.
President Saakashvili of Georgia from 2004 to 2013 Arrested and jailed In early October, he returned from exile in Ukraine.
The 53-year-old founder of Georgia’s main opposition force, the United National Movement, announced a hunger strike. Doctors expressed concern about his deteriorating health.
Saakashvili’s lawyer Dito Sazaglishvili told Al Jazeera: “There is a problem with his actions, his speed of action is a bit slow, and his condition is getting worse every day.”
The gorgeous pro-Western reformer was convicted in absentia for abuse of power and was sentenced to six years in prison in 2018. He denied wrongdoing.
Saakashvili’s other lawyer, Nika Gvaramia, read a speech to the crowd, calling for “destroy” with his main rival, the powerful tycoon Bizena Yi Bidzina Ivanishvili (Bidzina Ivanishvili) has an associated government.
The letter said: “Georgia must return to the pro-Western path and become a beacon of democracy, reform and development.”
“Now is the time to save Georgia through our national unity and reconciliation.”
According to the independent Pirveli TV station, on Thursday morning, a several-kilometer convoy carrying Saakashvili supporters traveled from all over the country to Tbilisi.
Before the protest, a large number of riot police were deployed outside the parliament building.
Saakashvili called on his supporters to mobilize against Ivanishvili, who founded the ruling Georgian Dream Party and is widely regarded as the country’s top decision maker.
Voting dispute
Saakashvili was deprived of his Georgian passport after obtaining Ukrainian citizenship in 2016, and continues to lead the reform of a government agency in the country.
Ukrainian President Zelensky has stated that he will urge Saakashvili to be released, but Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashivili has ruled out the possibility of Saakashvili being sent to Ukraine.
In a televised speech that triggered strong protests by Saakashvili supporters, Gary Bashvili said that the former president “must leave politics, otherwise we must detain him.”
The government stated that Saakashvili’s hunger strike was a political arena before the second round of mayoral elections at the end of this month.
Gary Bashvili told Al Jazeera: “The circuses and performances we have seen in the past few days have of course only one purpose.”
“It is the task of President Saakashvili to raise the temperature in some way. His party knows that they will lose anywhere in the second round of elections, so they try to show the public that President Saakashvili is seriously ill.”
Some analysts believe that Saakashvili’s return is untimely.
“Everyone knows that he is hungry for power, and I think it also makes some voters afraid to support him,” Kornely Kakachia of the Georgia Institute of Political Studies told Al Jazeera.
“So far, what we have seen is that he does not have that much support for launching a new uprising or revolution here. It is also important that he has not received as much international support as in the past,” Kakakia said.
The current government’s prosecution of Saakashvili and many of his allies has caused concern in the West. The United States hinted that it might impose sanctions on Georgian officials because of Georgia’s regression in democracy.
“Georgia’s Western allies worry that Saakashvili’s arrest was politically motivated, but they also warned him not to return to the country and destabilize the divided voters,” said Robin Forestier Walker of Al Jazeera. , Reports from Rustavi, who was imprisoned by the president.
His detention has deepened Georgia’s long-standing political crisis. The opposition party condemned the widespread fraud in the parliamentary elections last year. Georgia dreams of winning by a narrow margin.
Before Saakashvili returned to Georgia Local electionAccording to international observers, this is undermined by widespread and unanimous allegations of pressure on candidates.
The vote allowed the ruling party to win easily, and the ruling party was accused of fraud by the opposition.
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