Day: December 30, 2025
Georgian civic activist Tamar Mearakishvili, who has been on a hunger strike since her detention by the Tskhinvali de facto authorities on charges of spying for Tbilisi, has been hospitalized, local SAPA news agency reported on December 30, citing her lawyer, Alan Bazzaev.
“Her mood is normal, but she is experiencing severe weakness,” Mearakishvili’s lawyer told SAPA, noting that she refuses to end her hunger strike despite deteriorating health. She switched to a dry hunger strike on December 29, meaning she refuses both food and water, and has lost about 10 kilograms since her detention.
The de facto authorities in Tskhinvali reported Mearakishvili’s detention on December 22, alleging she was “suspected of passing information to foreign media outlets affiliated with the Georgian special services” and that “the media used the citizen in propaganda activities to promote the interests of Georgia and its Western partners.” A de facto court ruled on December 24 to place her in pre-trial detention for two months.
The Public Defender’s Office of Georgia addressed the case on December 30, saying it considers the detention as “a restriction on the human rights defender’s freedom of expression” and calling on the de facto authorities to “immediately release” her.
Mearakishvili, an outspoken civic activist who has also worked as a journalist for various media outlets in the past, had faced arrest and prosecution before. She was briefly detained in 2017, accused of spreading defamatory information against local de facto authorities, and later also prosecuted on allegations of fabricating official documents by claiming “South Ossetian” citizenship without renouncing Georgian citizenship. In 2019, however, a court in Akhalgori lifted charges against her.
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