Even if Saakashvili were not sick, he still would be a political prisoner for me and he should be free, Giga Bokeria, the chairman of European Georgia, said on PalitraNews.

According to Bokeria, he had been saying all the above even before Mikheil Saakashvili's arrival in Georgia. As he mentioned, Saakashvili is a political prisoner because of his principles.

"My position is this, regardless of how I evaluate the steps taken by him and his political team, which I evaluate badly, the political prisoner should be free - this has been our position from the first day, which is not about Saakashvili, but about the principle. This had been our position even before his arrival - we said that if he comes, he would be arrested and he would be a political prisoner. When it comes to the assessment of Saakashvili, we have a clear position that he is a political prisoner," said Bokeria.

According to him, the strategy of Saakashvili’s defense is wrong and works in favor of the Government.

"There are several lines of defense for Saakashvili. The one line is - "release me and I will no longer interfere in Georgian politics, I am no longer interested in Georgia", which is catastrophic for Saakashvili and the country. This took an extreme form at the last court session, when Saakashvili did not speak in Georgian. I consider this a disaster in every way. Therefore, in this vortex, all this is what Ivanishvili's regime needs. Its purpose is to show weakness and hysteria.

The President who asks the leader of the Putinist regime to "release him because he doesn't even speak Georgian anymore, he doesn't care about Georgian channels anymore", in my opinion, this is shameful. If something strengthens Ivanishvili's status quo, it is this kind of behavior," said Giga Bokeria.

source: IPN