The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rejected Mikheil Saakashvili’s lawyers’ plea, the Georgian Minister of Justice, Rati Bregadze, announced at a briefing on Friday.

“The Strasbourg court published its decision today, in which the convicted Mikheil Saakashvili was denied transfer to Warsaw, and the state was not instructed to transfer him to another treatment facility within the country,” the Minister said.

According to him, as a European state, Georgia stands unwaveringly in defence of human dignity and all rights derived from it.

“Unfortunately, there is a group of people who cannot adapt to Georgia’s success and purposefully cast a shadow on our country’s European future. From the first day of convict Saakashvili’s arrival, a deliberate slanderous campaign funded by unknown sources began, intending to portray Georgia as a state where someone was allegedly tortured.

To achieve this purpose, this group made it so far as to push the convict to have four episodes of hunger, disobey the doctor’s instructions, refuse treatment, and therefore worsen his health, which is nothing more than self-harm.

As you know, within the campaign to obtain freedom, based on the artificial deterioration of his health, legal disputes in Georgia’s Court of First Instance and Court of Appeal resulted in an unfavourable outcome for his defence.

Subsequently, lawyers appealed to the Strasbourg court, requesting that Mikheil Saakashvili be sent to Warsaw for treatment as a temporary measure.

However, the Strasbourg court’s decision ruled that Mikheil Saakashvili was denied transfer to Warsaw, and also, the state was not instructed to transfer him to another treatment facility.

As we have frequently contested, this decision shows that the state’s actions since his imprisonment have been correct and appropriate to the highest human rights standards.

Once again, I would like to thank all of our worthy employees who work hard to safeguard human rights, with special appreciation going to the medical staff who, despite many insults and slanders, have faithfully performed and continue to do their duty and protect human health,” Bregadze stated.

On April 11, Georgia’s ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s lawyers filed a lawsuit in the ECHR. The lawyers requested Mikheil Saakashvili’s sentence be postponed and transferred abroad for treatment.