Tamar Mearakishvili, who was detained in occupied Tskhinvali, has been released and is now on territory controlled by Georgia, Georgia’s State Security Service confirmed to Netgazeti.
The Akhalgori-based activist was detained on December 22 on charges of “espionage” and was placed in two months of pretrial detention. South Ossetia’s de facto security service accused her of providing information to foreign media outlets allegedly affiliated with Georgia’s special services. A local court in Tskhinvali had ordered her two-month pretrial detention on the same charges.
According to the KGB, Tamar Mearakishvili, accused of espionage, was “used by media outlets in propaganda activities to advance the interests of Georgia and its Western partners.”
In an earlier statement, the agency claimed that, according to the investigation’s version, a Georgian citizen present on South Ossetian territory was collecting and transmitting information about strategically important facilities, thereby posing a threat to the republic’s security.
Mearakishvili has been detained in the past. Her identity documents had been confiscated, and she was banned from leaving the occupied territory.