Speaking at a meeting of the Tbilisi City Court, ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili said that he “does not want to ask President Salome Zurabishvili for anything,” but still hinted at a request for a pardon.

“Mrs. Salome says that I no longer have the desire to travel abroad for treatment. The fact is that, unfortunately, this does not depend on my desire. My rehabilitation requires being outside of Georgia for some time, and, of course, Mrs. Zurabishvili can return her father to the children with one signature and, most importantly, restore the political balance in Georgia,” Saakashvili said.

Also, ex-President Saakashvili took over the leadership of the political council of the opposition party “United National Movement” that he founded. “I take political responsibility for ensuring that all our experienced fighters return to the political council. For some reason, many distinguished people were excluded from it. I take on the coordination of the political council, I take on the leadership so that the party reintegrates and is open to other connections and other people. We must be able to find a common language and move forward at a very fast pace,” Saakashvili said at the court hearing.

Since his arrest on October 1, 2021, Mikheil Saakashvili has spent a total of less than six months in a prison cell. The rest of the time, due to hunger strike and exhaustion, he was in clinics: first in a prison, then in a military hospital, and from May 2022 in the Vivamedi clinic. The politician was convicted in the cases of the murder of banker Sandro Girgvliani and the beating of deputy Valery Gelashvili. In the first case, Saakashvili was sentenced to three years in prison, in the second - to six. In addition, he is involved in the cases of the dispersal of the opposition rally on November 7, 2007, the pogrom at the Imedi television company and the embezzlement of funds from the state budget - these are still being considered by the courts.