To avoid risks, it is important to urgently transfer the third president abroad for medical purposes - HRC

The Human Rights Center [HRC] publishes an analytical document prepared on Mikheil Saakashvili's right to health care under the title, "Prisoner's right to health care - analysis of the ongoing trial against Mikheil Saakashvili and subsequent events".

 According to the HRC, the analytical document is based on various qualified sources, first of all - the monitoring reports of court hearings prepared by the Court Monitor of the Human Rights Center. In the document, based on the national legislation and the relevant decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, a comparative-legal analysis is made, thus various legal problems were more clearly presented.

 The Human Rights Center has been actively monitoring the ongoing criminal cases against the third president of Georgia in the Tbilisi City Court since the day of Mikheil Saakashvili's arrest.

 The document reviews the facts of inhumane treatment of the third president in Gldani prison, and also states that after a long hunger strike, he developed serious diseases as a result of inadequate treatment.

 The HRC is demanding the right to transfer the third president abroad for medical treatment and the implementation of the mechanism of postponement of the sentence, which, according to them, is allowed by the law.

 "Since, according to the experts' assessment, Mikheil Saakashvili's right to health care is not properly realized in Georgia and the state does not/cannot fulfill the duties assigned to him in this regard, in order to avoid risks, it is important to urgently transfer the third president abroad for medical purposes." According to the document, citing a specific case, when one of the prisoners, due to a serious health condition, had his sentence postponed and was given the opportunity to continue his treatment in France.

 The documentation included the trial held in the ward of the Viva Med Clinic, which made the third president's condition even worse in recent days.

 Recommendations of the Center for Human Rights

 To the judicial authorities

 1. Judges should ensure a fair trial and with a high standard of justification of the decisions made, the coury must adhere to the Bangalore Principles of Conduct, to build public confidence to the justice system.

 2. To ensure the observance of the principle of publicity of the process, especially in such a resonant case where there is high public interest, since during the trial at the clinic Vivamed this principle was ignored.

 To the Ministry of Justice/Special Penitentiary Service:

 1. To abide by the conclusions of the multifunctional group of doctors and fulfill the obligation to provide an environment corresponding to human dignity and to choose an alternative medical facility for the prisoner when there is an urgent need for it.

 2. To consider the particularly severe condition of the prisoner's health, and to work on the issue of postponement of the sentence and for him and on giving the possibility of treatment abroad.