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Georgian Activist Says Detained Without Reason In South Ossetia


Georgian civil activist Tamara Mearakishvili (file photo)
Georgian civil activist Tamara Mearakishvili (file photo)

Georgian civil activist Tamara Mearakishvili says she has been detained without reason in the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Mearakishvili said that an officer of the de facto South Ossetian prosecutor’s office took her into detention on August 16 in Akhalgori after she arrived from Tbilisi.

"[The officer] has not explained anything yet. There are no documents, nothing," she told RFE/RL's Echo of the Caucasus in a brief phone call..

Mearakishvili has repeatedly been summoned by prosecutors in the separatist government for questioning over interviews she has given to Echo of the Caucasus, which broadcasts to Georgia in Russian.

Russia recognized South Ossetia and another Georgian breakaway region, Abkhazia, as independent states following a five-day war with Georgia in August 2008. Only a few countries followed Moscow’s lead.

Russia maintains thousands of troops in the two regions, and Georgian authorities have accused Moscow and the separatists of taking control of additional territory in recent months.

RFE/RL has been declared an "undesirable organization" by the Russian government.

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