South Ossetia’s de facto security service, the KGB, has specified a new charge against detained Akhalgori-based activist Tamar Mearakishvili, saying the detainee is suspected of providing information to foreign media outlets affiliated with Georgia’s special services.
At this stage, even Mearakishvili’s family members say they have no information about her whereabouts or other details of her detention.
The Akhalgori activist had been living for eight years without formal charges, but in practice remained under movement restrictions and without identity documents. She was running a small shop in Tskhinvali while continuing her public activism, speaking out about local problems and criticizing the de facto authorities.
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.”
“At this stage, the republic’s general prosecutor’s office has opened a criminal case against the detainee. Within the framework of the case, necessary operational search and investigative measures are being carried out to identify possible accomplices and connections on the territory of the Republic of South Ossetia,” the RES news agency reported, citing the KGB.
In an earlier statement, the agency said the investigation’s version is that 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 were confiscated and she was banned from leaving the occupied territory.
She was first detained on August 16, 2017, by the so-called South Ossetian militia near her home, without explanation or a warrant. She was later charged with defaming the United Ossetia party, illegally obtaining South Ossetian citizenship, and using forged documents. These charges were dropped in 2023 due to a lack of evidence.
Because of persecution in Tskhinvali, Mearakishvili repeatedly sought direct meetings with Georgian government representatives and asked for assistance, but was refused each time.
“For four years I have been persecuted for civic activism at Bibylov’s will. I am formally charged in three criminal cases. For four years I have been unable to exercise freedom of movement. During all these years I have had to attend dozens of court hearings and interrogations at the prosecutor’s office.
The Georgian authorities avoid raising my problem. When they do speak about me, it is purely formal, and they themselves know well that this cannot help ease my situation,” Mearakishvili said in 2021.
For her tireless work in defending the rights of conflict-affected populations, Georgia’s Public Defender nominated Tamar Mearakishvili for the United Nations and Vaclav Havel human rights prizes. In 2018, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Georgia awarded her a human rights tulip. The same year, the South Caucasus Regional Office of the Heinrich Boell Foundation named her the winner of its 2018 “Intervention Desired” award.