The Democracy Research Institute has sent a letter of appeal to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, the State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, the Head of the State Security Service of Georgia to resolve the issue of Akhalgori activist Tamar Mearakishvili.

Tamar Mearakishvili, an Akhalgori-based civil activist, has been the victim of retaliation by the de facto South Ossetian government for more than three years. An investigation has been ongoing against her on absurd charges for four years now, due to which, Tamar’s freedom of movement has been restricted for years. After the closure of Akhalgori, even family members have not been able to visit her.

For the past two weeks, Tamar Mearakishvili has been threatened by a district prosecutor via social media. As a punitive mechanism, the prosecutor cut off electricity supply to her. Tamar Mearakishvili was told by the electricity supply company that she had no arrears, but power was cut off by the order of the prosecutor's office.

Tamar Mearakishvili connects the above incident with the case that took place three years ago, when the arrears caused by the malfunctioning meter was written off in agreement with the head of the electricity supply company. The above is being used by the prosecutor to make threats against Mearakishvili. He accuses Tamar of providing the so-called confidential information to Georgian media and of cooperating with the Georgian security service. The de facto prosecutor believes that the electricity arrears of Tamar Mearakishvili were “illegally” written off after an interference by the State Security Service of Georgia.

The civil activist openly speaks about problems on her social network page and is waiting for a response from the Georgian Government.

The Democracy Research Institute has repeatedly stated that the Government's efforts to help Tamar Mearakishvili are inadequate. As far as we are aware, the issue of Tamar Mearakishvili has not been on the agenda since 2018, neither in the format of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism in Ergneti or the Geneva International Talks.

To help Tamar Mearakishvili, who found herself alone against intimidation and threats made by the de facto authorities, we call on you to:

Use all mechanisms at your disposal to stop threats and blackmail against Tamar Mearakishvili; raise this issue at the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism meeting scheduled for late September.

Develop special support programmes and create the so-called reserve fund, which will make it possible to help citizens living in the occupied regions and along the dividing line, in case of special needs.