Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia who was taken into custody after returning to his homeland, has declared a hunger strike in prison.
Saakashvili considers the charges brought against him to be politically motivated, and himself a political prisoner.
On Friday, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said that Saakashvili had been arrested in the country. Prior to that, the former president had said he intended to return to his homeland for the upcoming local government elections.
In Georgia, he was on the domestic wanted list, is a defendant in several criminal cases, and representatives of the authorities have repeatedly stated that they would arrest him the moment he crossed the border. Saakashvili has been convicted in absentia for the murder of Sandro Girgvliani and the beating of parliamentarian Valeri Gelashvili. In the first case he was sentenced to three years in prison, in the other to six. In addition, Saakashvili is a defendant in cases involving the dispersal of an opposition protest on 7 November 2007, the raid on the Imedi television company, and the misappropriation of funds from the state budget. All courts continue to examine them.
