I'm not going to appeal to Salome Zurabishvili, I'm going to submit the opinion of a friend of the court, because I have one day left in my position and I'm going to use this position in relation to Mikheil Saakashvili, Public Defender Nino Lomjaria stated at a briefing, where a group of doctors informed the public about the health condition of Mikheil Saakashvili.

As the Ombudsman explained, her term expires on December 8, 2022, and before that she plans to use the opinion of a friend of the court, because the condition of the third president allows for a postponement of the sentence.

According to Lomjaria, the Public Defender's recommendation to the court will be to take into account the health condition of the patient, convict, accused, and prisoner and consider and make a decision in the shortest possible time frame.

"In a parallel mode, we have already started working on the preparation of the opinion of the friend of the court. The Office of the Public Defender has conducted a rather voluminous and unique study on the practice of exemption from serving the sentence and postponement of the sentence, as well as a legislative analysis. We were already going to publish this research, it is the results of the last five years of research, but unfortunately, it will not be possible within my term, but we will use the findings of this research in connection with the case of Mikheil Saakashvili.

Perhaps most importantly, the council's conclusion on one issue is unequivocal that the patient's condition is critical. Accordingly, according to my assessment as a Public Defender, this is in line with the requirements of Article 283 of the Civil Code, which in such a situation, at least, provides for the postponement of the sentence of the convicted person. Therefore, from a legal point of view, to me, this conclusion tells me that the patient's condition is serious. Article 283 of the Criminal Code states that the sentence of the convicted person can be postponed if his/her illness is serious, which prevents the execution of the sentence. Therefore, as his health condition is assessed as serious and we have a fairly detailed reasoning, I think that Mikheil Saakashvili's condition allows for a postponement of the sentence. However, since my council was not able to fully assess his situation because we do not have more specialized experts and we did not conduct a complete study, which was impossible, there may be other circumstances, the party will submit it. It is possible that the criteria for exemption may be met by the expertise drawn up by the party, but I am speaking on the basis of the conclusion developed by my experts, I will try to send the opinion of the friend of the court before the end of my term, i.e. by December 8", says Lomjaria.

source: IPN