“There is nothing more Soviet, nothing more repulsive, nothing more base and violent than questioning a dissident’s sanity — what they used to call ‘declaring someone insane’ in the Soviet Union. Freedom for Nino! The oligarchy must be overthrown!”

This is stated in a letter by imprisoned opposition leader and one of the leaders of the “Coalition for Change,” Nika Gvaramia, which was shared on his Facebook page.

Gvaramia was responding to the court's approval of the Prosecutor’s Office’s request to transfer detained activist Nino Datashvili to a psychiatric facility.

“I want to respond to the forced transfer of a jailed schoolteacher, Nino Datashvili, to a psychiatric institution.

There is nothing more Soviet, nothing more repulsive, nothing more degrading and violent than putting a dissident’s sanity into question — what in the Soviet Union was called ‘being declared insane.’

There is no form of imprisonment worse than this! The last time something like this happened in Georgia was under the Soviet regime, when it was used against the writer Nazi Shamanauri, who was locked away in the ‘Sbersky’ Institute in Moscow, where she died.

Freedom for Nino! The oligarchy must fall!” Gvaramia wrote in his letter.

For context, according to the organization Partnership for Human Rights, the Prosecutor’s Office requested a psychiatric evaluation of the detained activist Nino Datashvili, and the court approved the motion.

Nino Datashvili was arrested on June 20 in connection with an incident that occurred on June 9 and was charged under Article 353¹, Part 3 of Georgia’s Criminal Code, which refers to an attack on a public official during the performance of official duties. The penalty for this charge includes either a fine or imprisonment from 4 to 7 years.