Today, the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office, within the framework of an absurd investigation, froze the bank accounts of 7 independent organizations that do Georgian work, serve Georgian citizens, and fight for Georgia’s European future. The grounds for the freeze are stated to be that we have been and are assisting mass-tortured people, prisoners of conscience, and fined citizens. The illegal ruling does not contain any factual justification. The judge basedthe decision solely on some blank quotes.

The adversaries of the Georgian people want us to no longer be able to protect the rights of children, women, people with disabilities, students, those illegally detained, workers, and the elderly; to no longer investigate and report on injustice, corruption, torture, and systemic violence; to no longer defend them in the ECtHR and other international courts. They want not only to sabotage future European integration, but also to deprive the Georgian people of the greatest good they have already gained – the right to visa-free travel.

We will not cease our work. Regardless of seizures, repressions, or threats, we will stubbornly continue our work as long as the Georgian people fight for justice and fairness every day. We will fight against authoritarian rules and Russian laws and use all legal mechanisms to prevent the opponents of the country’s democratic and European path, as enshrined in the Constitution, from achieving their goal. We will protect Georgia’s European path and continue to fight to save the visa-free travel and Georgia’s democratic future,” the NGOs said in a joint statement.