Eduard Saakashvili: It is terrible to see my father so ill

The son of jailed Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili has told BBC News about seeing his father in prison and in poor health.

“My father's a very charismatic, fun person to be around, but lately… it’s just so different,” Eduard Saakashvili told Yalda Hakim from BBC World News.

“What's so infuriating is I can go in there, I can talk to him, this is all I can do,” he said, adding that he could not get his father forms of treatment because the government was in charge.

Mikheil Saakashvili has been in a Georgian jail for more than a year, after being convicted of abuse of power while he was in office.

He has reportedly suffered significant weight loss and medical experts have found evidence of heavy-metal poisoning. The Georgian government denies Mikheil Saakashvili’s life is in danger.

A court in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, had been due to decide whether to release him on humanitarian grounds in order for him to get medical treatment abroad. The hearing was cancelled because a video link had not be set up.