Mzia Amaglobeli has been charged with assaulting a police officer, but her family and supporters say she is being punished for her journalism.
Supporters of detained Georgian journalist Mzia Amaglobeli — who has been on a hunger strike for more than two weeks — say that her life is at risk as her health worsens.
Amaglobeli, the founder of Georgian news outlets Batumelebi and Netgazeti, was arrested on 12 January for slapping Irakli Dgebuadze, the police chief of Batumi, the country’s second largest city located on the Black Sea coast.
The veteran journalist has been charged with assaulting a police officer and faces between four and seven years in prison if found guilty. She has been denied bail and pre-trial detention can be applied as a preventive measure for up to nine months in Georgia.
The charges against Amaglobeli come amid a crackdown by authorities on nationwide protests in the wake of October’s contested election and the ruling Georgian Dream party’s decision in November to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union.
Amaglobeli and her colleagues have reported extensively on the force and violence used by police to clamp down on demonstrations, which have led to hundreds of protesters being arrested and dozens of journalists being reportedly beaten and injured.
“The charges against me are the result of repressive, treacherous, and violent actions aimed at suppressing people, freedom of speech, and expression,” Amaglobeli wrote in a letter from prison on 20 January that has been shared by journalists and activists.
She wrote that she was on hunger strike, saying: “Freedom is more valuable than life.”
Her niece, Iveta Amaglobeli, told Euronews that the journalist had been on hunger strike for at least two weeks, and that the family had asked for a doctor’s note about her health.
“Family members are very concerned about Mzia’s deteriorating condition,” she said.
In a statement published on Monday, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) — a human rights NGO — said that Amaglobeli’s life was in danger and urged the prison administration to take immediate action to ensure her health.
A ‘symbolic’ slap
Amaglobeli was first arrested on 11 January for posting a sticker with information about an upcoming nationwide protest at the entrance of a police station.
She was then released within hours and was greeted by some of her supporters outside the station. Yet while they conversed, police officers reportedly began arresting several of those present, including two of Amaglobeli’s associates.
Amaglobeli was re-arrested on that same evening.
According to organisations such as the International Press Institute (IPI) and the writers’ association PEN International, this led to an altercation between Amaglobeli and the Dgebuadze, during which the journalist is accused of slapping the Batumi police chief.
Video footage of the incident shows that the slap “was symbolic and lacked sufficient force to cause harm”, according to anti-corruption NGO Transparency International Georgia, which said the act “of such minor significance” does not constitute a crime.
The news of Amaglobeli’s detention sparked protests across Georgia, with journalists in Tbilisi and Batumi demanding her immediate release.
Amaglobeli says that she has been mistreated by Dgebuadze while in custody — accusing him of spitting in her face and denying her access to water and toilet facilities for an extended period — according to GYLA, whose chairperson has visited the journalist in prison.
Following a national outcry, Georgia’s Special Investigation Service (SIS) — which investigates crimes committed by officials — said an investigation had been launched into the Amaglobeli’s treatment on 20 January, after the GYLA raised a complaint.
Amaglobeli’s case has been highlighted by more than 300 Georgian journalists and editors, at least a dozen international media freedom organisations (including the IPI), Nobel Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa, and the Council of Europe (CoE).
The CoE’s commissioner for human rights, Michael O’Flaherty, was in Georgia last week and visited Amaglobeli in jail after raising her case in his meetings with the authorities.
“Without prejudice to any future decision on the merits of the charges against her, I believe that the continuation of her pre-trial detention is unjustified and I am very concerned about her situation,” O’Flaherty said last Friday.
Pro-Russia stance
Amaglobeli’s niece Iveta told Euronews that her aunt was “being punished by the regime of oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili for her impartial journalism and exemplary civil activism.”
Ivanishvili, a former prime minister and the founder and honorary chairman of Georgian Dream, is widely considered the country’s de facto leader. The shadowy billionaire and his party have been accused by critics of turning away from the West and towards Russia, all while making the country increasingly repressive and authoritarian.
In December, the former US administration under then-President Joe Biden imposed sanctions on Ivanishvili “for undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation”.
Last year, Georgian Dream pushed through laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on LGBTQ+ rights and freedom of speech, including the controversial “foreign agents” legislation that has put media outlets and civil society groups under ever-increasing pressure.
Under the law, NGOs and independent media that receive more than 20% of their funding from foreign donors must register as organisations “bearing the interests of a foreign power” and are subject to monitoring by the Ministry of Justice.
Critics have called it the “Russia law”, and say it is being used to attack civil liberties.
“When the Russia law came into effect, I asked Mzia, “Aren’t you afraid?,” Iveta Amaglobeli told Euronews.
“I was very worried about the violence and what was happening to protesters. She replied saying that she was protesting and fighting, so that future generations can have freedom of speech,” she added.
Violent crackdown
Georgia has been rocked by political chaos since Georgian Dream claimed victory in the country’s October elections, announcing it had taken 54.08% of the vote.
Opposition forces — including Georgia’s former pro-Western president, Salome Zourabichvili — have condemned the results as a “total falsification” of the vote. The ruling party, which has been in power since 2012, has denied any wrongdoing.
Protesters took to the streets in October to denounce the election result, and demonstrations escalated further in late November, when Georgian Dream announced that it would freeze EU accession talks until 2028.
In the violent crackdown on protesters, rights groups say that hundreds of people — including opposition MPs, journalists and activists — have been beaten and arrested.
According to a report released by Amnesty International in mid-December, more than 460 people have been detained while protesting, with around 300 reporting severe beatings and other ill-treatment.
Earlier this month, Georgian opposition leader Giorgi Gakharia was hospitalised after he was attacked at a hotel in Batumi, according to his For Georgia party.
A party spokeswoman said the attack on Gakharia, a former prime minister and previous member of Georgian Dream, was “politically motivated” and blamed the government. In response, figures with the ruling party accused For Georgia of fabricating the assault.
Last week, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze — a former chairman of Georgian Dream — said that 2025 would be “critically important for our internal politics”.
“We must deliver a decisive blow to the radicals in our country,” he said. “Radicalism and liberal fascism must come to an end in Georgia.”
