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Watchdogs: Amaghlobeli Case Tells a Story of Persecution of Independent Press

On the evening of 11 January, Mzia Amaghlobeli, the founder and director of online publications Batumelebi and Negtazeti, was protesting with other Georgian citizens in the coastal city of Batumi when she was arrested for trying to put up a sticker calling for a national strike on 15 January.

After being arrested (along with other protesters) on administrative charges, she was detained for two hours. She was then released on bail, only to be arrested 15 minutes later near the Batumi police station. This time, she is facing criminal charges of assaulting a police officer.

Local and international watchdogs have decried Amaghlobeli’s arrest and pre-trial detention. Several protest rallies in Georgia have demanded her release. On January 14, Georgian independent media went on a three-hour preventive strike in protest. On January 17, two simultaneous protests took place in Batumi and Tbilisi.

What happened?

The video shot during the live broadcast, which surfaced shortly thereafter, shows her slap Batumi police chief Irakli Dgebuadze, the same officer who arrested her the first time. The footage shows her standing alongside Batumelebi editor Eter Turadze, surrounded by around twenty police officers as a verbal altercation takes place. She then slaps Dgebuadze. A policeman (possibly Dgebuadze) can be heard threatening her with imprisonment on criminal charges. Amaghlobeli was charged under Part 1 of Article 353 Prima of the Criminal Code which penalizes an “assault” on a police officer. It carries a prison sentence of 4 to 7 years.

What does the GD say?

GD officials and propaganda machinery are pushing the message that even in the most democratic countries, assaulting a police officer is a criminal offense and carries serious legal consequences. Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze commented: “Everyone must understand that the police are inviolable, the police represent the state, represent the strength of the state, and especially when it comes to a high-ranking police officer, any action against them is absolutely unacceptable and not only unacceptable, but it is a very serious criminal offense.”

The Media Advocacy Coalition, a media watchdog, says the footage was manipulated and cut by the official media channels to vilify Amaghlobeli and failed to show the context. It adds, “Amaghlobeli was subjected to ill-treatment, which we also see as retaliation and exemplary punishment against critical media.” The lawyers say a slap on the face does not qualify as an “assault,” and a criminal charge is exaggerated and thus punitive.

What is the context?

The monitors and human rights defenders who have been able to communicate with Amaghlobeli note that, according to her account, she was harassed and ill-treated at the police station, including verbal abuse and insulting treatment by the police officers. Amaghlobeli alleges that Chief Dgebuadze swore at her and spat in her face at the police station, and tried to physically abuse her but was stopped by other policemen. She also said that she was not allowed to drink, use the restroom, or contact her lawyer for three hours after the second arrest. The Media Advocacy Coalition, a media watchdog, and editor Tuadze confirm this account. Amaghlobeli also says her two young relatives were arrested in front of her that evening. State-sponsored media did not report on this context.

In addition, rights defenders note that the police have been unduly interfering with the right to peaceful assembly and the freedom of expression. Detaining people for posting stickers won’t be tolerated in the democratic countries that the GD refers to. A protester who has been mistreated: denied access to her lawyer for several hours, denied water or the use of the restroom, could expect prompt release and have the right to legal redress. A police chief who spat at the detained journalists and threatened them while in custody would most likely lose his job.

On 17 January, Nona Kurdovanidze, Chairperson of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association a respected legal watchdog, noted that the Special Investigation Service (SIS) – a body charged with investigating crimes by officials – had been aware of the ill-treatment of Amaghlobeli since January 12 and had received detailed information from the alleged victim herself on January 15. Kurdovanidze said no information had been forthcoming as to whether an investigation into these allegations had been opened.

This constitutes another important element in the case: Georgia is in the midst of an acute democratic crisis, where the journalists are deliberately targeted and protesters subjected to repeated acts of violence by the police and security services.

Journalits targeted

The arrest of Amaghlobeli comes against the backdrop of the cascade of multiple targeted, deliberate attacks on journalists in recent months, the rapid deterioration of press freedom, and a broader scaling back of democratic freedoms in the country. Authorities have used violence, but also legal and institutional tools to curtail dissenting voices and make the environment increasingly hostile to the media. The most prominent of these tools is the so-called Foreign Agents Law adopted in 2024, which gives the state tools to close down the publications that receive foreign grants.

During the November-December pro-EU rallies alone, more than 90 journalists were physically assaulted, verbally abused, or obstructed in their professional duties, while none of the perpetrators were held accountable. RSF, IPI, Human Rights Watch, and other international watchdogs, as well as politicians and legislatures, have criticized the attacks on media and called on the Georgian Dream government to investigate and annul repressive legislation.

The harassment of Batumelebi did not end with Amaghlobeli’s arrest. On 14 January, Batumelebi cameraman Guram Murvanidze was also arrested while filming the demonstrators in Batumi. The police chief, Dgebuadze, arrested him while filming the peaceful protest rally, and his phone was confiscated. According to Murvanidze, Chief Dgebuadze inquired who the cameraman was working for and proceeded to detention after hearing that the employer was Batumelebi. Murvanidze was consequently sentenced to eight days in prison.

Resurgent violence

The protests ongoing in Georgia for more than 50 days saw hundreds of cases of what the human rights watchdogs assess as the disproportionate use of force by police and acts of violence “tantamount to torture.” Many protesters were beaten by the security officials and sustained serious injuries.

Moreover, as a result of ongoing repression, activists, politicians, and media representatives have been harassed and physically attacked in their homes and in the streets. None of the perpetrators of violence against opponents of the regime have been arrested or held accountable. The violence, which peaked in late November-early December, has subsided briefly during the New Year’s celebrations but is now coming back in force.

Several days after the incident involving Amaghlobeli, Giorgi Gakharia, leader of the For Georgia party and former Prime Minister under the Georgian Dream (GD) government, was violently assaulted by several Georgian Dream deputies. He was hospitalized with a broken nose and concussion.

The Ministry of Interior said it is investigating the Gakharia case under Article 126 of the Criminal Code, which implies acts of violence that caused physical pain but have not resulted in deliberate physical injury. The contrast with Amaghlobeli’s charge is striking – she is facing years in prison for slapping an official who mistreated her, while GD deputies who beat up a man at a hotel may walk away with a fine.

What do the lawyers say?

The lawyers say the charge of “assault” leveled at Amaghlobeli is a “legal absurdity.” According to lawyer Vakhtang Natsvlishvili, “a slap cannot be considered an assault under any circumstances” in the meaning of Article 353′ of the Criminal Code, “no matter how broad the catalog of actions that meet the criteria for ‘assault’ may be.” The lawyers also note that the Criminal Code uses the term “assault” in relation to crimes such as armed robbery, banditry, terrorism, piracy, armed conflict, persecution, and the like.

They argue that the Amaghlobeli case should have been qualified at most as “insulting a police officer” under Article 173 of the Administrative Offenses Code, which carries a fine of GEL 2,000-3,000 or administrative detention for up to 15 days.

Punitive custody?

On January 14, Judge Nino Sakhelashvili of the Batumi City Court remanded Mzia Amaghlobeli in custody until March 4. She accepted the prosecutor’s stated concern that Amaghlobeli was risking “committing a repeat offense,” and rejected the defense’s request for release on bail.

The Rule of Law Coalition, a watchdog, said the court failed to justify the need for preventive custody. In choosing the most severe preventive measure – imprisonment – the judge ruled out the existence of a risk of absconding but ruled on imprisonment, quoting the risk of committing new crimes and destroying evidence. The coalition calls these justifications “abstract, formulaic, and subjective.” The watchdog concludes: “An unreasonably serious and unsubstantiated accusation and the subsequent [pre-trial] detention based on it have a punitive and repressive intent, which undermines the independence and impartiality of judicial institutions.”

On January 16, the Public Defender of Georgia submitted an Amicus Curiae brief to the Kutaisi Court of Appeals regarding the decision to remand Amaghlobeli in preventive custody. The brief says the evidence to justify pre-trial detention is “insufficient and irrelevant,” when considering the standards set by the Criminal Procedure Code and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. The Public Defender also said that such a restriction of a person’s liberty, based solely on abstract and potential threats, is unacceptable.


Background: What is Batumelebi?

Batumelebi is one of the oldest and most respectable publications in Georgia. It was founded in 2001 in Batumi and is still based there (its sister online publication, Netgazeti, was issued in Tbilisi in 2010). The publication saw light as a direct response to the large-scale violations of the rule of law, human rights violations, and widespread corruption during the rule of Adjara’s autonomous region’s autocratic ruler, Aslan Abashidze.

The publication has won numerous awards and is considered as one of the flagship independent news outlets.

It has also been repeatedly harassed since its inception. In 2003, under pressure from the authoritarian regime in Adjara, the Batumi City Court revoked the legal registration of his company (“Gazeti Batumelebi”), and the local authorities have consistently refused to re-register it under a new name. With the support of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) it was successfully registered in Tbilisi on August 8, 2003. The Batumelebi/Netgazeti journalists were also harassed during the Shevardnadze and Saakashvili presidencies.

Notably, it has also incurred Moscow’s wrath, receiving the status of an “organization disseminating anti-Soviet propaganda” and being banned in Russia. In 2022, Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor blocked the Russian-language versions of Netgazeti and Batumelebi.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)

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