“Mikheil Saakashvili wanted to be alone in the prison cell and the ward,” said the Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze in response to the report by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), published on 18 January.

Bregadze reported that Saakashvili had received 3,000 visits in under 2.5 years.

“How can he be alone when family members visit daily and spend hours with him? If he wants a cellmate, we can do that, but he must first request it,” the Minister stated.

Bregadze went on to say that “Saakashvili has never shown a desire to spend time outside and has declined any offers.”

According to the report: “For those patients, to be deprived of the possibility to go outdoors to the fresh air, expose themselves to sunlight and (to the extent that their health allowed) exert themselves physically was not only oppressive but also anti-therapeutic. Furthermore, some of the patients had been accommodated alone in their room, without any real possibility of association. The premises occupied by Mr C were particularly generous in size, with a day room and a bedroom measuring in total approximately 20 m2 (fully-partitioned bathroom excluded) for prolonged periods. This was inter alia the case with Mr C, whose regime could be considered as resembling solitary confinement.”