The Batumi City Court has ruled to keep journalist and media director Mzia Amaglobeli in pre-trial detention, rejecting a motion from her defense team to replace imprisonment with a milder preventive measure. The court justified the continued detention by citing the risk of re-offending and the possible destruction of electronic evidence, including mobile data.
Amaglobeli, founder and head of the independent media outlets Batumelebi and Netgazeti, was first detained on January 12 after placing a protest sticker calling for a national strike on an outbuilding of the Batumi police department. Although this act typically falls under administrative law, she was soon arrested again and charged under Article 353¹(1) of Georgia’s Criminal Code for allegedly assaulting a police officer—a charge that carries a prison sentence of four to seven years. Posecution says Amaglobeli slapped Batumi Police Chief Irakli Dgebuadze during the incident.
Her defense argues that the charges are politically motivated and that the slap does not meet the legal threshold of a criminal assault. They insist the incident should be treated as an administrative offense under Article 173, which would carry a fine or a short detention. Furthermore, Amaglobeli’s lawyers have accused the authorities of artificially inflating the case by including the sticker incident in the criminal proceedings to legitimize her ongoing custody.
Since her arrest, civil society organizations and international watchdogs have criticized the court’s decisions and the broader implications for press freedom in Georgia. Transparency International Georgia, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, and the Public Defender’s Office have condemned her detention as unlawful, while the Media Advocacy Coalition and several foreign embassies have called for her immediate release. The Committee to Protect Journalists and Amnesty International have also described the charges as punitive and politically charged.
Public protests in support of Amaglobeli have taken place in Batumi and Tbilisi, with demonstrators chanting slogans such as “Freedom for Mzia” and “No justice, no peace.” At the same time, the journalist herself began a hunger strike in mid-January, which lasted 38 days and raised serious health concerns.
The court had previously denied her release on bail, despite a proposed amount of 100,000 GEL. Multiple attempts to overturn the detention have failed, and in June, she was additionally fined 1,000 GEL for placing the protest sticker—a move her defense decried as being punished twice for the same act.
While Amaglobeli remains in custody, the criminal trial is ongoing, and her legal team is appealing the decision at the Kutaisi Court of Appeals. The case has become a symbol of the rising tension between the Georgian government and independent media outlets, with many observers warning of a growing crackdown on press freedom.