I'm hearing disturbing news that the former public defender of Georgia, Ucha Nanuashvili, was summoned by the State Security Service and questioned about his role in cooperating with OSCE's fact-finding mission to Georgia, - the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, writes on social media.

“I'm hearing disturbing news that the former public defender of Georgia, Ucha Nanuashvili, was summoned by the State Security Service and questioned about his role in cooperating with OSCE's fact-finding mission to Georgia. Human rights defenders should not be subjected to intimidation and reprisals for cooperating with international human rights mechanisms”, she wrote.

For information, last week, former Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili was questioned at the Tbilisi City Court as part of an investigation launched by the State Security Service. Nanuashvili was summoned by the State Security Service on March 17. According to Nanuashvili, the investigator told him that he was summoned as a witness due to his communication with a Moscow Mechanism expert.