Georgian ex-president threatened and abused in prison hospital - rights official

FILE PHOTO: Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's former President and newly appointed head of the executive committee of Ukraine's National Reform Council, speaks during an interview with Reuters at his house in the village of Lisnyky outside Kiev, Ukraine May 8, 2020. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo

TBILISI (Reuters) -The prison hospital treating Georgia's hunger-striking former president Mikheil Saakashvili lacks proper medical equipment and fellow inmates there have threatened and abused him, a Georgian human rights official said on Tuesday.

"Particular attention should be paid to the environment in which Mikheil Saakashvili is placed, which grossly violates human rights," Public Defender Nino Lomjaria, Georgia's rights ombudsman, said in a statement.