Mearakishvili announced her desire to return to her homeland.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," the stated reason for accusing Tamara Mearakishvili of espionage was a video of a cell tower. After her transfer to the hospital, her health condition due to a dry hunger strike was used as a pretext to deport her to Georgia, with the lack of a South Ossetian passport cited as the reason, she reported.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on December 23, 2025, Georgian citizen Tamara Mearakishvili, taken to the South Ossetian Ministry of Internal Affairs detention center, refused to eat. On December 29, 2025, she also refused medication and water, going on a dry hunger strike. This happened after a representative of the penitentiary department commented on her refusal to end her hunger strike with the words: "It's okay, there will be one less Georgian." On December 30, Mearakishvili was hospitalized, and on the same day she was formally charged. On December 31, by a court decision, Mearakishvili was deported from South Ossetia and taken to Georgia. The lawyer said that he was not warned about the deportation of his client. The stated reason for accusing Tamara Mearakishvili of espionage was a video with a cell tower. After she was transferred to the hospital, her health condition due to a dry hunger strike was used as a pretext to deport her to Georgia, and the reason given was the lack of a South Ossetian passport, she said.
On December 22, the South Ossetian Prosecutor General's Office announced that a criminal case for espionage had been opened against a Georgian citizen. According to security officials, Mearakishvili, while in South Ossetia, collected and transmitted information about strategically important facilities.
Tamara Mearakishvili told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that she is currently in Tbilisi, staying overnight with various acquaintances. "Journalists call me and ask where I live and how I live. I tell them it's like this. They joke, 'How can you be a spy if you don't even have temporary housing in Georgia,'" she said.
The court's deportation decision was made on December 31, a public holiday in South Ossetia. "I was lying on an IV drip when a KGB officer came into the room and told me I had to go to court quickly. He said they'd resume the IV later. They left the catheter in my arm, just as I was, in my pajamas, barefoot. The riot police took me by the arms and lifted me into a wheelchair. I was still weak, but they didn't forget to handcuff me. As we were leaving the hospital, one of the riot police officers took off his hat and placed it on my arms so the handcuffs wouldn't be visible. I took off my hat and loudly said, 'This is how they bring a sick woman to court, let everyone see,'" says Tamara Mearakishvili.
There was no one in the courthouse, she continued, because it was a weekend, New Year's Eve. Judge Oksana Kokoeva was the only one who came because of this case. "In the courtroom, as always, they led me into a cage, but, as always, I didn't sit down. I never sat on that bench during these hearings. I said that this wasn't my place, that others would sit there," says Mearakishvili. She said the court ruling was already prepared; it was simply read out.
The ruling states that Mearakishvili illegally obtained a South Ossetian passport, as she subsequently reacquired Georgian citizenship. "I reminded the court that here, in this very courtroom, I was acquitted, it was proven that I am a full citizen of South Ossetia. Then the judge asked what documents I use when traveling around South Ossetia? I answered that I have none, I don’t have a passport, the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not issue me my passport. Then she replied that “this is not an excuse.” The court ruling on deportation states that the basis was “violation by a foreign citizen or stateless person of the stay (residence) regime in the Republic of South Ossetia, expressed in the absence of documents confirming the right to stay (reside) in the Republic of South Ossetia.” At the exit of the court building, a silver Niva was already waiting for me, they put me in the back seat, as it was, in handcuffs, with guards sitting on either side. They brought me to the border in the same way, in my pajamas, they got me out of the car, I walked to the Georgian checkpoint, it was several hundred meters away. In my hands "There was a court decision and my glasses," she says.
The court fined Mearakishvili another 2,000 rubles, which she was never able to pay, and gave her 10 days to appeal the verdict. "I said, well, since the court is working on a weekend because of me and this decision, it's unlikely they'll let me file an appeal, since the weekend is coming up." But the judge told me that the court office is open every day," she added. According to Mearakishvili, she has not yet decided whether to ask her lawyer to appeal this decision or not.
On the other side of the border, Georgian police officers and representatives of the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia were already waiting for her, who took her to the hospital for now. She was released from there that same day.
According to Mearakishvili's lawyer, Alan Bazzaev, he does not have notification of the termination of the criminal case against Mearakishvili and the drop of espionage charges against her, but the deportation means that the criminal case is automatically closed.
In an interview with the Georgian television company Pirveli, Mearakishvili said that she wants to return to her homeland and intends to defend her rights.
"I "I didn't leave Akhalgori even during the war. We weren't at war, but when about 90% of the population leaves and you're left in a completely different reality, it's hard to get used to. Back then, in 2008, I didn't even know Russian, and I wasn't alone there—I left my 11-year-old child there and continued living. I have an apartment there, my parents. All my memories are connected to that place. They even argued with me that I wasn't born there, they tried to figure out why I was there in the first place, where I came from, and how I got there," she told the television company.
According to her, she has nothing in Tbilisi. "I really don't need anything. I just need temporary shelter, I have to go back," Mearakishvili said.
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Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/419639
![Tumso Abdurakhmanov. Screenshot from video posted by Abu-Saddam Shishani [LIVE] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIR3s7AB0Uw](/system/uploads/article_image/image/0001/18460/main_image_Tumso.jpg "Tumso Abdurakhmanov. Screenshot from video posted by Abu-Saddam Shishani [LIVE] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIR3s7AB0Uw")