A European court has ordered Georgia to ensure Saakashvili’s security Prison News

The verdict came amid growing concern over the health of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been on hunger strike since October 1.

The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Georgia to ensure the safety of imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili, as concerns over his health are mounting after a nearly seven-week hunger strike.

Georgia needs to take steps to “inform the Court of the applicant’s current health status, ensure his safety in prison and provide adequate medical care for the post-hunger recovery period,” the ECHR said in a response Tuesday. Saakashvili complained about his terms.

The ruling is a temporary measure ordered by the Strasbourg court in urgent cases where the ECHR considers that there is an imminent risk of irreparable harm to an applicant.

Saakashvili, who was president of the Caucasus country between 2004 and 2013, has been refusing food for 47 days to protest his imprisonment on October 1, shortly after returning from exile in Ukraine.

The court’s announcement came after Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze stressed at a news conference earlier Tuesday that Saakashvili was receiving adequate medical care.

Bregadze said that “there has not been a single instance of Saakashvili not receiving the medical service he needed,” and that the prison hospital “has all the necessary infrastructure to monitor the health condition of the starving prisoner.”

The ECHR said a treatment plan to restore Saakashvili should also be made. He also called for the “cancellation of the hunger strike”.

Saakashvili argued in his complaint that the prison hospital was not properly equipped, that his safety could not be guaranteed and that he should be taken to a civilian hospital.

Doctors have confirmed that he is taking only fluids and vitamins and has lost 10 percent of his body mass.

The son of the former president, Eduard Saakashvili, said his father’s life was in jeopardy and filed an appeal to take him to a civilian hospital.

Last week, Saakashvili was forcibly taken to a prison hospital, supporters say he does not meet his medical needs.

The 53-year-old pro-Western reformer, who was president in the 2008 war with Russia, said he was attacked by prison guards and feared for his life.

Saakashvili’s arrest exacerbated the political crisis that the opposition, which emerged from parliamentary polls last year, denounced as fraudulent.

It has also spurred some of the biggest anti-government protests in a decade.

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili sparked outrage recently when Saakashvili said he had a “right to suicide” and was forced to arrest the government because he refused to give up politics.