ジョージアのサーカシビリ元大統領、「拷問」で健康状態深刻 医師団

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】旧ソ連のジョージアで１０月に逮捕・収監されたミヘイル・サーカシビリ元大統領（５３）について、医師団は１８日、「拷問や虐待」を受け、深刻な健康状態にあると発表した。（写真は２００７年のデモ鎮圧をめぐる裁判に出廷したサーカシビリ元大統領）
　サーカシビリ氏は親欧米派の改革者として、２００４年から１３年まで大統領を務めた。退任後はウクライナに亡命していたが、１０月１日にひそかに帰国。亡命中に職権乱用罪で有罪判決を受けており、直後に逮捕された。逮捕を受けて、ジョージアではここ１０年で最大の反政府抗議デモが起きた。
　サーカシビリ氏は有罪判決について、政治的動機に基づくものだと非難している。収監後、抗議のハンガーストライキに入ったが、命に関わるほど体調が悪化。１１月に東部ゴリの軍病院へ搬送され、５０日間に及ぶハンストを終了していた。
　サーカシビリ氏を診察した医師団は、「拷問、虐待、不十分な治療、長期間のハンスト」の結果、心的外傷後ストレス障害（ＰＴＳＤ）など複数の精神疾患を発症していると発表。医師の一人はＡＦＰに、「必要のない抗精神病薬を誤って処方され、健康状態がさらに悪化した可能性がある」と語った。
　サーカシビリ氏も１１月、殺害の脅迫や睡眠妨害、身体的虐待をはじめとする心理的な拷問を受けたと主張していた。
　独立系テレビ局ピルベリＴＶによると、刑務所内では受刑者たちがサーカシビリ氏に脅迫の言葉や罵声を浴びせたという。これについてサーカシビリ氏は「刑務所当局が仕組んだことだ」と主張している。同氏は大統領在任中に、組織犯罪の取り締まりに積極的に取り組んでいた。
　ジョージア司法省は１１月、サーカシビリ氏が刑務所の病棟に強制移送される際、看守に床の上を引きずられている映像を公開した。
　国際人権団体アムネスティ・インターナショナルは、サーカシビリ氏の扱いについて、「『偏った正義』が行われているだけではなく『政治的報復』がなされている」と非難している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/12/20-13:00）

The health of Georgia's jailed opposition leader and ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili has been seriously damaged as a result of torture and ill-treatment in custody, an independent council of medics said Saturday.
Saakashvili refused food for 50 days to protest against his jailing for abuse of office, a conviction he has denounced as politically motivated.
The 53-year-old pro-Western reformer called off his hunger strike after he was placed -- in a critical condition -- in a military hospital in Georgia's eastern city of Gori.
He has developed a number of neurological diseases as a result of torture, ill-treatment, inadequate medical care, and a prolonged hunger-strike, said the doctors, who had examined him in custody.
Their statement said he had been diagnosed with the potentially life-threatening brain disease Wernicke encephalopathy and with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), among other conditions.
One of the doctors, psychiatrist Mariam Jishkariani, told AFP that the conditions that resulted from Saakashvili's psychological torture in prison, could lead to his incapacitation if he is not given a proper medical care.
She said Saakashvili was wrongly prescribed antipsychotic drugs which he hadn't needed and which could further damage his health.
This could be interpreted as a pharmacological torture.
Earlier in November, Saakashvili said he was subjected to psychological torture that included death threats, sleep deprivation and physical abuse.
I was tortured, I was treated inhumanely, beaten up, and humiliated, he said.
Georgia's State Inspector Service said in a statement last week that it had launched an investigation into the alleged inhuman treatment of Saakashvili.
- 'Political revenge' -
The independent Pirveli TV channel reported that inmates in the prison shouted threats and profanities at Saakashvili who led a campaign against organised crime during his tenure as president.
Saakashvili has said it was orchestrated by the prison administration.
He described an episode when he was alone and absolutely sure the criminals were coming to kill him as prison guards did not respond to his call.
In November, the country's justice ministry released footage of the former president being dragged by the floor by prison guards during his forcible transfer from prison to a prison hospital.
Amnesty International has branded Saakashvili's treatment not just selective justice but apparent political revenge.
The US State Department has urged Georgia's government to treat Saakashvili fairly and with dignity.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) demanded that the ex-Soviet nation's authorities ensure his safety in prison, and provide him with appropriate medical care.
The ruling was delivered in November as part of an urgent interim measure that the ECHR applies only where there is an imminent risk of irreparable harm, the court said in a statement.
Georgia's president from 2004 to 2013, Saakashvili was arrested on October 1 shortly after he secretly returned to Georgia from exile in Ukraine.
His arrest exacerbated a political crisis stemming from parliamentary polls last year that the opposition denounced as fraudulent.
It also spurred the largest anti-government protests in a decade.
Rights groups have accused the Georgian government of using criminal prosecutions to punish political opponents and critical media.
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili sparked an uproar recently when he said the government had been forced to arrest Saakashvili because he refused to quit politics.