{"id":1140425,"date":"2023-07-18T14:58:37","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T14:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cpj.org\/?p=300509"},"modified":"2023-07-18T14:58:37","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T14:58:37","slug":"in-georgia-poetry-a-prison-visit-and-a-pardon-for-nika-gvaramia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/07\/18\/in-georgia-poetry-a-prison-visit-and-a-pardon-for-nika-gvaramia\/","title":{"rendered":"In Georgia, poetry, a prison visit, and a pardon for Nika Gvaramia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
On the road to Rustavi Prison #12, where the only journalist jailed in Georgia is still serving out his 3.5-year sentence, Sofia Liluashvili is speaking to me about poetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liluashvili is the wife of Georgian journalist Nika Gvaramia<\/a>, who spent more than a year behind bars before a pardon<\/a> by President Salome Zurabishvili led to his release on June 22. Less than two weeks earlier, I and CPJ Deputy Emergencies Director Kerry Paterson were in Georgia, the country that became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, driving with Liluashvili to the prison holding her husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Liluashvili is in the back of a black SUV talking about growing up in Georgia under Soviet rule as we stop for water at a gas station known for its American-style hot dogs. We are in this car on our way to stand outside Rustavi prison and call on President Zurabishvili<\/a> to release him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n