On 6 October, jailed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has said he is ready to take any drug test in prison and "challenged" PM Irakli Garibashvili to do the same.

Saakashvili's lawyer Beka Basilaia said after meeting Saakashvili in prison on 6 October that Saakashvili was ready to take any drug test in front of TV cameras and journalists in prison rather than at the Samkharauli Forensics National Bureau. “We are also challenging Garibashvili to do the same at the government office (Chancellery),” Saakashvili's lawyer added.

Saakashvili's decision comes after Garibashvili's repeated speculations about Saakashvili being a drug addict. The accusation was voiced in Garibashvili's statement posted on his Facebook page on 6 October, where he claimed that Saakashvili could have been a drug addict and therefore, could have miscalculated his steps.

He was referring to Saakashvili's unexpected return to Georgia after eight years of self-exile.

"Some think that he came back with the intention to stage a coup and he strongly believed he would be successful in that. There is talk that against the backdrop of [him] being a heavy drug addict [and that] he miscalculated the outcomes of his decision," Garibashvili said in the statement.

This was not the first time Garibashvili referred to Saakashvili as a drug user. Last month, he also called Saakashvili a "drug addict."

Garibashvili also had to change the wording of the same Facebook statement after he had reportedly faced criticism for saying that "asphyxiating gas" would have been used against supporters of Saakashvili had they gathered in his support in the country's capital Tbilisi.

"Asphyxiating gas" was said to have been changed to "tear gas" in the statement posted on Facebook.

Earlier on 6 October, Garibashvili claimed that Saakashvili had plotted a "coup" in Georgia and if he had appeared in capital Tbilisi with his supporters, police would have used water cannons and "asphyxiating gas" to disperse the gathering.