According to reports, human rights defender Tamar Mearakishvili has been arrested on charges of espionage and has been sent to two months of pretrial detention by a de facto court. In addition, according to social networks, the detainee is on a hunger strike.

Tamar Mearakishvili, as a human rights defender, has collaborated with both local and international media for years, actively speaking out about the problems in the occupied Akhalgori region, which, according to her, has repeatedly been a prerequisite for her detention in the past. She had her identity documents confiscated and was prohibited from leaving the occupied territories.

The Public Defender assesses the detention of Tamar Mearakishvili as a restriction on the human rights defender's freedom of expression and calls on the de facto government to immediately release her.