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The
pro-Western politician, who declared a hunger strike on Oct. 1,
was arrested after returning to Georgia, having lived abroad for
years.
He faces up to six years in jail after being convicted in
absentia in 2018 of abuse of power and concealing evidence when
he was president, charges he rejects as politically motivated.
"One of the parameters of Saakashvili's blood test was bad, so
local prison doctors and an emergency ambulance team helped me
with the transfusion and after that Saakashvili's condition
stabilised," Nikoloz Kipshidze, Saakashvili's doctor, was quoted
as saying by Interfax.
Kipshidze believes that Saakashvili should be transferred to a
city hospital because "the crisis can recur and it would be
difficult to cope with it in a prison hospital," Interfax added.
The 53-year-old Saakashvili led the Rose Revolution in 2003 that
ousted veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze. Saakashvili ruled as
president from 2004 to 2013 before leaving the country and
building a new political career in Ukraine.
He was arrested and jailed on Oct. 1 after returning home on the
eve of parliamentary elections to rally the opposition and "take
part in saving Georgia".
Last week thousands of his supporters rallied in the capital
Tbilisi to demand his release.
(Reporting by Polina Devitt; writing by Mark Trevelyan and
Polina Devitt; editing by Ros Russell)
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