The de facto security agency of Russian-occupied South Ossetia [KGB] has specified a new charge against the Akhalgori-based Georgian activist Tamar Mearakishvili, who is currently detained. She is “suspected of transmitting information to foreign media outlets affiliated with Georgian intelligence services.”
At this stage, even her family members are unaware of her whereabouts or other details regarding her detention.
Tamar Mearakishvili, an activist from Akhalgori, had formally lived without charges for eight years, though in practice her freedom of movement was restricted and she lived without official identification documents. She ran a small shop in Tskhinvali but continued her public activism — speaking about local issues and criticizing the local authorities.
According to the KGB, Mearakishvili, accused of espionage, “was used by media outlets in propagandistic activities to promote the interests of Georgia and its Western partners.”
“At this stage, the Republic’s General Prosecutor’s Office has opened a criminal case against the detainee. As part of the investigation, necessary operational, search, and investigative actions are being carried out to identify the suspect’s possible accomplices and connections within the territory of the Republic of South Ossetia,” the RES agency reports, citing the KGB.
According to a previous statement from the agency, investigators believe that a Georgian citizen present in South Ossetian territory “collected and transmitted information about strategically important objects of the Republic, thereby threatening the country’s security.”
Mearakishvili has previously been detained. Her identity documents were confiscated, and she was forbidden to leave the occupied territory.
She was first detained on August 16, 2017, by the so-called South Ossetian police near her home, without explanation or a proper warrant. Later, she was charged with defaming the “United Ossetia” party, illegally obtaining South Ossetian citizenship, and using false documents. These charges were dropped in 2023 due to a lack of evidence.
Because of the persecution in Tskhinvali, she repeatedly requested in-person meetings with Georgian government representatives and asked for assistance, but her requests were always denied.
“For four years I have been persecuted for civil activism at the behest of Bibilov — I have been formally charged in three criminal cases. For four years I have been unable to move freely. During all these years, I have had to attend several dozen court hearings and interrogations at the prosecutor’s office.
The Georgian authorities avoid raising my issue. If they mention me, it is only formal, and they know well themselves that this does nothing to improve my situation,” Mearakishvili stated in 2021.
Tamar Mearakishvili has been nominated by the Public Defender of Georgia for the UN and Václav Havel Human Rights Prizes for her tireless work defending the rights of populations affected by conflict. In 2018, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Georgia awarded her a human rights distinction. That same year, the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s South Caucasus regional office named her a winner of the 2018 “Intervention Desirable” award.
