The Democracy Research Institute states that the government's efforts to help Akhalgori civil activist Tamar Mearakishvili are inadequate and insufficient. According to the information organization was provided with, since 2018 Tamar Mearakishvili's issue has not been on the parties' agenda neither in the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism[1] meetings in Ergneti nor in the Geneva International Discussions format. According to publicly available sources, her issue was also not discussed at the NATO-Georgia Commission meeting in Brussels.[2]

On August 16, 2017 Akhalgori activist was detained by so-called South Ossetian police without any explanation and relevant order. Later, she was charged for defaming the region’s ruling United Ossetia party, illegally obtaining South Ossetian citizenship and the use of fraudulent documents.

Two years and six months have passed since the charges against Tamar Maarakishvili. During this time, she is restricted from freedom of movement and is in actual home detention.

Even though the so-called South Ossetian court has fully lifted Mearakishvili’s charges three times, the so-called Prosecutor's Office has appealed all the decisions. On January 17, 2020, de-facto Tskhinvali Supreme Court partially upheld the verdict of the Tskhinvali City Court and acquitted Mearakishvili of defamation against the regional branch of the ruling “Edinaia Ossetia” party. However, two criminal cases – obtaining the so-called South Ossetian citizenship without rejecting her Georgian one and the use of fake passport, was upheld and returned for re-examination in the court of first instance.

At the court hearing, the judge gave the instructions that if Mearakishvili is found guilty in illegally obtaining the so-called citizenship, she will be forcibly deported from Akhalgori.

The Democracy Research Institute believes that under the inaction of the authorities, the threat of forcible “deportation” of Tamar Mearakishvili from Akhalgori is real. Accordingly, the DRI calls on the authorities to use all political and legal tools to help Akhalgori activists. Among them, Mearakishvili's issue should become one of the topics on the agenda during the negotiations with international partners and with all parties involved in the conflict.

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The information provided by Tamar Mearakishvili delivers significant assistance to the non-governmental organizations and activists working on the conflict issues on both sides of the administrative border. The Georgian Public Defender has nominated her for the United Nations Human Rights Prize and Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize for her "outstanding contribution to defending the rights of conflict-affected population”. In 2018, The Embassy of the Netherlands to Georgia has awarded  her with the Human Rights Tulip award. In the same year, South Caucasus Regional Office of the Heinrich Boell Foundation named her as the winner of “Meddling is desirable”.

[1] https://smr.gov.ge/ge/news/read/1311/?fbclid=IwAR3eg6BpAITYz3SxDvXo5hnmT_f2-gvWTUMo8Kr65h5CtJJgNrnoVL0z0ZQ

[2] https://smr.gov.ge/ge/news/read/1786/saxelmwifo-ministri-briuselshi-nato-saqartvelos-komisiis-sxdomaze-sityvit-gamovida