Georgian civil activist Tamar Mearakishvili, who has faced persecution for her stories concerning Georgia’s occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region, has announced she will begin a hunger strike starting from July 2 in order to attract attention and inform the public about the illegalities committed against her by the de facto Tskhinvali leadership.
Mearakishvili says that it has already been 11 months she has been deprived of the right to leave the occupied territory due to two "fabricated charges” against her.
She says that the de facto prosecutor’s office of Akhalgori "is stretching time” and refuses to submit her case to court.
The action aims to weaken me both materially and morally,” Mearakishvili says. "My rights are violated on a daily basis and the hunger strike is my protest against the illegality.”
The de facto prosecutor’s office of Akhalgori charged Mearakishvili on June 12 with illegally receiving the "citizenship of South Ossetia” with fabricated documents and slander against the regional office of the ruling United Ossetia party.
Mearakishvili, who is supported by the central government of Georgia and members of the international community, says that the legal proceedings against her aim to silence her.
Tskhinvali has been occupied by Russia since the Russia-Georgia 2008.