A Georgian courtroom has sentenced journalist and media founder Mzia Amaghlobeli to 2 years in jail for slapping a police chief.
Amaghlobeli, founding father of the unbiased information websites Batumelebi and Netgazeti, stated that the police chief within the Georgian resort city of Batumi, Irakli Dgebuadze, had verbally assaulted her. Whereas in custody, she stated later, she was verbally abused and spat at by police.
Initially Amaghlobeli was charged with “assaulting a police officer,” which carries a most sentence of seven years in jail, however the cost was downgraded on the final minute on Wednesday to “resisting, threatening, or utilizing violence towards a protector of public order.”
Opposition politicians and activists say the sentence is unfair and is politically motivated — a part of an escalating authorities crackdown on dissent.
“The regime is paralyzed — too cowardly to free Mzia Amaghlobeli, too weak to convict her,” former President Salome Zourabichvili wrote on X. “This isn’t justice. It’s a dying authoritarian system. And we received’t cease!”
The diplomatic missions of 23 international locations and the European Union have denounced the sentence and referred to as for Amaghlobeli’s launch. Amnesty Worldwide stated the trial was “riddled with procedural irregularities and bias.”
Since a parliamentary election final October, the ruling Georgian Dream get together has cracked down on dissent, sentencing opposition leaders to jail time and assaulting and fining anti-government protesters. Final week a Georgian courtroom approved the pressured switch of detained activist Nino Datashvili to a psychiatric facility.
Although Baltic international locations have individually sanctioned the officers liable for the crackdown, the European Union as an entire has been unable to impose sanctions as a consequence of opposition from Hungary and Slovakia.
The European Fee has threatened to remove Georgia’s visa-free journey to Europe — which might not require unanimity — if the federal government doesn’t reverse its democratic backsliding by September.
Georgian Dream and the Georgian Prosecutor’s Workplace didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.