According to the Minister of Justice of Georgia, Rati Bregadze, the Special Penitentiary Service, the Ministry of Justice and the medical staff cannot be responsible for the patient's self-harm.

As Rati Bregadze noted at the briefing held at the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, based on the best interests of the prisoner's health, he calls on everyone to stop supporting Mikheil Saakashvili's self-harm and politicizing the issue of execution of the sentence.

"I would like to remind the society once again that when the prisoner Mikheil Saakashvili was on hunger strike, the Special Penitentiary Service called him to end his hunger strike, following the relevant protocol. The interested party was pushing Mikheil Saakashvili in every possible way to starve, that is, to artificially worsen the state of health. As soon as information about the possible poisoning spread, we offered Saakashvili a toxicological examination, which he refused. He does not allow the investigation to take the samples needed for the toxicology examination. This is an indication that the party is not interested in establishing the truth. We also offered him and his defense to bring any doctor from any foreign clinic, but the party did not respond to this offer either. This chain of events is aimed at worsening the state of health and thereby escaping from the execution of the sentence.

We, the Penitentiary Service, the Ministry of Justice and the medical staff, can only be responsible for the proper performance of our duties, but we cannot be responsible for a prisoner's self-harm.

Based on the best interests of the prisoner's health, we call on everyone to immediately stop supporting Mikheil Saakashvili's self-harm and politicizing the issue of execution of the sentence," said Rati Bregadze.