‘RISK OF MORTALITY’

Ex-Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili Allegedly Poisoned in Prison

His legal team said he could die without adequate treatment.

Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia, has been poisoned with heavy metals while in prison and could be at risk of dying if he doesn’t receive appropriate medical treatment, his legal team said Monday. Saakashvili, 54, has been in jail since 2021 after being convicted three years earlier of abuse of power in a trial condemned by international rights groups as politically motivated. In a report, Saakashvili’s legal team said toxic agents including arsenic and mercury had been found in his system, with U.S.-based toxicologist David Smith saying that there was “a reasonable degree of medical certainty” that the heavy metals had been introduced after Saakashvili’s incarceration. Smith added that the “increased risk of mortality is imminent,” while another independent doctor, Mariam Jishkariani, revealed that Saakashvili has been “diagnosed with brain damage and neuro-intoxication.” “He is suffering from a number of serious illnesses, which are incompatible with his confinement, according to Georgian law,” Jishkariani added.