Mzia Amaghlobeli’s Verdict Expected on August 6 as Journalist Delivers Final Remarks

04/08/2025 - 14:38

A protester holds a banner demanding the release of imprisoned journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli, March 7, 2025; Photo: Guram Mudaov/Civil.ge

The verdict in the case of journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli, on trial on what’s widely seen as disproportionate and politically motivated criminal charges of assaulting a police officer, will be announced on August 6.

Batumi City Court Judge Nino Sakhelashvili scheduled the next hearing for Wednesday at 2 p.m., following journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli’s final remarks delivered during the August 4 session. Amaghlobeli, founder of Batumelebi and Netgazeti outlets, has been remanded in custody over slapping Batumi Police Chief Irakli Dgebuadze during a tense night of protests and arrests in Batumi. She faces 4 to 7 years on charges of attacking a police officer.

“Whatever decision you make today, I want you to know that I consider myself a winner,” Amaghlobeli told the court on August 4, according to the live blog by the Publika outlet.

“I am not evading responsibility, but I am convinced that there must be a provision in Georgian law that fits my act,” the journalist said, openly rejecting the plea bargain floated by prosecutors in previous sessions. Her defense has argued that accepting the deal would require Amaghlobeli to plead guilty to a disproportionate criminal charge.

“I won’t and can’t sign this plea bargain, because what happened was not an attack, and portraying and veiling a slap as an attack is evil,” the journalist said, calling the offer “deeply offensive” and likening it to “being buried alive.”

In her concluding remarks, Amaghlobeli also thanked her lawyers, family members, friends, colleagues, and diplomats. She further expressed solidarity with Nino Datashvili, an activist and teacher who similarly faces years in jail over an alleged slap, and who currently faces involuntary transfer to a psychiatric facility for examination following a controversial court decision.

Amaghlobeli’s case has drawn widespread local and international attention, with critics viewing it as an attempt to silence and punish independent media. The final hearings, held on August 1 and 4, were accompanied by protests outside the courthouse, as supporters gathered in the coastal city to stand with her. Among them were family members, colleagues, activists, politicians, diplomats, and Georgia’s fifth president, Salome Zurabishvili.

Many have repeatedly traveled long distances to attend the trial, including Amaghlobeli herself, who is held at Rustavi’s fifth penitentiary facility, a six-hour drive from Batumi, where she was arrested and tried and where she has worked for many years.

“The justice that calls Mzia’s slap an attack on a police officer is not a justice,” Maia Mtsariashvili, Amaghlobeli’s lawyer, told the court on August 1, at the end of her nearly 8-hour-long remarks.

“Mzia Amaghlobeli’s case is a mirror of how the government abuses power, how the charge fails to serve its purpose, and how it tries to present the victim as the abuser and the abuse as the victim,” Mtsariashvili added, describing the case as the one “to be discussed by generations,” according to RFE/RL Georgian Service live blog.

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