In an interview with France 24, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili was asked if she was going to pardon jailed ex-president, Mikheil Saakashvili “given the state of his health and they tend to underline the image damage this whole situation is doing to Georgia in the West. ”

Zourabichvili said, “I know that and I am concerned about that and I am doing a number of things to elevate this situation, but the damage is done by the decisions taken by the government and it’s not really the pardoning/not pardoning that changes this damage.”

“And I think he should be treated and I have been vocal about that as many, many other presidents around the world that have been sentenced, there are electronic bracelets that we know here and other forms that are much more in line with what is expected of the country that will join the EU.

I do not want to explain here but there are legal considerations that do not make it, if not possible, but I always refrain from going into explanations because the power of discretion of the Georgian President is the same and equal to the presidents of other countries and they don’t explain,” she asserted.