Georgia ex-president Saakashvili says abused in prison, fears for life

Georgia's jailed ex-president and opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been on hunger strike for weeks, said on Monday he feared for his life after prison guards assaulted him.

Saakashvili, who served as president between 2004 and 2013, was arrested on October 1 on his return from exile in Ukraine. 

He has refused food for 39 days to protest against his imprisonment, which he says is politically motivated.

His jailing has exacerbated a political crisis that erupted last year after the opposition denounced fraud in parliamentary elections won narrowly by the ruling Georgian Dream party.

The guards "abused me verbally, punched me on the neck, dragged me on the ground by my hair", Saakashvili said in a letter released through his lawyer, adding that his controversial transfer to a prison hospital was "aimed at killing" him.

He was moved on Monday to a prison hospital that rights officials say fails to ensure his proper treatment. 

The flamboyant pro-Western reformer's arrest provoked the largest anti-government demonstrations in a decade.

Chanting Saakashvili's name, about 40,000 demonstrators flooded on Monday evening into the central Freedom Square in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

"A mass, permanent protest movement begins in Georgia and will not stop until Mikheil Saakashvili is set free and snap elections are called," Nika Melia, the chairman of Saakashvili's United National Movement party, told the crowd.