The blaze in Pingtung County broke out the same day that Typhoon Krathon made landfall in the island's south
The health of Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s jailed ex-president, is deteriorating due to drastic weight loss, his doctors said on Wednesday, following international calls for his release.
The 55-year-old pro-Western reformer was arrested in 2021, days after secretly returning to the Caucasus country from exile.
He has been in hospital since last year after refusing food for 50 days to protest his detention, which rights groups say is politically motivated.
Once a jovial, larger-than-life personality, Saakashvili has become a shadow of his former self, his lawyers and doctors say, repeatedly sounding the alarm about his deteriorating health.
On Wednesday, the opposition politician’s doctor, Tamar Davarashvili, told a news conference that Saakashvili could soon end up in intensive care.
“The patient’s condition is becoming serious,” she said.
“His weight and body mass are extremely low,” she said, adding that the “next stage could be an intensive care unit”.
She said that Saakashvili — who weighed 115 kilogrammes when he was jailed in October, 2021 — now weighs just 67 kilogrammes.
Davarashvili described him as weak and bedridden and said he suffered pain in his limbs.
The news conference came following numerous calls from the West for the Georgian government to release Saakashvili on humanitarian grounds.
Last week, more than 570 members of the European Parliament passed a resolution demanding that the Georgian government release Saakashvili and allow him to receive medical treatment abroad.
“The way former President Mikheil Saakashvili is being treated is a litmus test of the Georgian government’s commitment to European values,” the resolution said.
The leaders of Poland, Ukraine, and Moldova have made similar calls.
In early February, a court in Georgia rejected Saakashvili’s bid to get his six-year sentence for alleged abuse of office deferred over poor health.
A group of US-based doctors have said Saakashvili is suffering from serious neurological, gastrointestinal, and orthopaedic conditions.
They said his health deterioration was a result of “torture” in custody.
One of the doctors, toxicologist David Smith, also said tests had revealed Saakashvili had been exposed to poisoning by heavy metals while in custody.
Saakashvili was convicted in absentia for abuse of office and sentenced to six years in prison in 2018.
The blaze in Pingtung County broke out the same day that Typhoon Krathon made landfall in the island's south
Flights grounded, financial markets shut for second day
The 2024 race has seen more twists than a Hollywood blockbuster
Time is running out, Antonio Guterres told the 15-member Security Council
Ukraine now spends roughly half of its state budget — or about $40 billion — on defence
The advance of Moscow's forces, which control just under a fifth of Ukraine, has underlined Russia's vast superiority in men and materiel
Teams of enumerators accompanied by soldiers and armed police went door to door in Yangon to fill in the 68-question survey
The debate is likely the final one of the 2024 presidential campaign, potentially giving it some extra weight ahead of the November 5 election