The images are strangely red and his face is very thin, but it was definitely Mikheil Saakashvili's face showing up on the video conference screen. The former president of Georgia had not been seen in public for seven months and there he sat, on his hospital bed, his hair in a mess and a pillow behind his head.

Mr. Saakashvili has been imprisoned since his return to Georgia in October 2021 after eight years of exile. His fate is to be decided in a Tbilisi court. After two postponements, judges began deliberations on Thursday, December 22, to decide whether he should be released or have his sentence held up for medical reasons.

Mr. Saakashvili's lawyers made the request after reading a five-page long medical report from November 28 by a US toxicologist. He found the former president had been "poisoned" with mercury and arsenic. A team of five senior US doctors established from medical samples Mr. Saakashvili was facing an "imminent" risk of death without adequate treatment, which appears to have been denied or was unavailable.

On Thursday, a few dozen supporters of Mr. Saakashvili gathered in front of the courthouse in Tbilisi holding signs demanding to "save the president" and have him released.

"We demand that Mikheil Saakashvili be allowed to go abroad to receive medical treatment, as recommended by doctors," said his lawyer, Dito Sadzaglishvili. "It is a matter of life and death."

The health of Mr. Saakashvili declined significantly since his incarceration. He has lost more than 40 kilos over a year, of which 25 kilos in the last three months. Rights defender Nino Lomjaria, who visited him on November 28, confirmed the "sharp deterioration" in his condition. He added Mr. Saakashvili "stays in bed almost all the time."

Mr. Saakashvili considers himself Vladimir Putin's "personal prisoner" and has long been the nemesis of the Russian President. In a letter sent to Le Monde on December 8, he called on French President Emmanuel Macron for help. "As I am dying, I do not have much time!"

Six days later, the Georgian special prison service, citing "great public interest," released controversial images of Mr. Saakashvili in a hospital recorded between August and September.

The ruling Georgian Dream party, founded by billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, Mr. Saakashvili's arch-rival, intended to demonstrate that he was just pretending to be ill. In this video taken from surveillance cameras, the former president can be seen nervously fidgeting in his sheets, throwing objects at the staff, falling out of bed, smoking in front of the television and moving around in a walker.

You have 60% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.