23 members of the European Parliament have signed a letter urging the EU to consider sanctions against those who facilitated the detained former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili's “degrading treatment.”

After a clandestine return from eight years in political exile, Saakashvili was detained in Tbilisi on October 1. He started a hunger strike in response to the allegations.

The former president, who was serving his sentence in Rustavi Prison No.12, was transferred to Gldani prison hospital on November 8 to ‘prevent deterioration in his health due to increased risks,' the penitentiary service reported.

Saakashvili later claimed that prison staff verbally and physically abused him during the transfer, saying ‘[they] dragged me to the ground and hit me several times in the neck. The MEPs addressed the President of the European Commission Ursula von Der Leyen, Vice President of the Commission Josep Borrell, and the President of the European Council Charles Michel to “react promptly”and ensure that EU representatives are allowed to visit Saakashvili in prison.

Saakashvili, along with his supporters, demanded to be transferred to a civil clinic. In a letter released from a prison hospital, he wrote that he would call off his hunger strike if taken to a “high-tech” clinic for rehabilitation.

Following a fainting incident, Saakashvili was taken to Gori Military Hospital Friday night.

Carl Hartzell, the EU Ambassador to Georgia, expressed his delight at Saakashvili's release from the jail hospital and expressed optimism for "further development."

Saakashvili, who is now a citizen of Ukraine, left Georgia in 2013, a year after his United National Movement (UNM) party lost to the ruling Georgian Dream in parliamentary elections. In 2018, a Georgian court convicted him guilty in his absence of two counts of abuse of authority and sentenced him to six years in prison.

He now faces five further counts, including unlawful property seizure, embezzlement, rally dispersion, and illegal border crossing.