 The third president of Georgia, Mikhail Sakashvili, on July 3 participated in court proceedings remotely and spoke about his health. Appearing by video link from a Tbilisi clinic where he is currently being held as he serves a six-year prison sentence for abuse of power, he lifted his shirt to show that he had lost weight and that his ribs were prominent. His family members, lawyers and doctors have demanded he be transferred abroad for treatment. Sakashvili, who led the former Soviet Republic as a pro-western reformer from 2004 to 2013, is serving a six-year sentence for abuse of power, a charge he and his supporters save was politically motivated. Sakashvili has staged multiple hunger strikes while in prison and alleges he has been poisoned. Georgian officials say the ex-president is simulating the seriousness of his condition in order to gain early release and that they have provided adequate health care in a clinic in Tbilisi where he has been held for months.