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Court case gives Georgian Dream a black eye [1]
['Irakli Machaidze', 'Aigerim Turgunbaeva']
Date: 2025-08
Mzia Amaghlobeli’s supporters, along with opposition leaders, characterized her criminal conviction as a major defeat for the government, a case of authoritarian overreach that severely damages Georgian Dream’s legitimacy in the eyes of citizens. (Photo: Mikheil Gvadzabia/oc-media.org, n9.cl/a9r3j)
Underscoring the arbitrary nature of Georgian justice, a court on August 6 unilaterally downgraded the criminal charge at the last moment against a prominent media executive before proceeding to hand out a two-year prison sentence.
Mzia Amaghlobeli, the founder of two groundbreaking, independent newspapers Netgazeti and Batumelebi, stood trial for criminal assault of a law-enforcement officer, a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison. But before reading the verdict on August 6, the presiding judge, Nino Sakhelashvili, decided to reduce the charge to “resistance, threat or violence” against a law-enforcement officer, punishable by a two- to six-year sentence. She then handed out a two-year term to the Amaghlobeli.
The last-minute reduction of the charge, and the two-year sentence, was seen as an admission by court, and by extension the country’s Georgian Dream leadership, that the case against Amaghlobeli was a politically motivated miscarriage of justice from the start. Rights watchdogs monitoring the trial maintained the state offered no evidence to support the assault charge, while the defense insisted that Amaghlobeli’s actions should have been classified as an administrative, not criminal offense.
Amaghlobeli’s supporters, along with opposition leaders, characterized the verdict as a major defeat for the government, a case of authoritarian overreach that severely damages Georgian Dream’s legitimacy in the eyes of citizens. Adding to the day’s significance, activist Giorgi Akhobadze was acquitted of serious drug charges, the first not-guilty verdict tied to the ongoing protests, highlighting growing concerns about police planting drugs on politically active citizens.
The heads of 24 Western diplomatic missions in Georgia issued a joint statement condemning Amaghlobeli’s sentence as “disproportionate and politicized.” They warned that the ruling and the pressure on Batumelebi and Netgazeti “exemplify the escalating intimidation of journalists in Georgia, including unpunished violence and legal persecution, in clear violation of the country’s international obligations to protect media freedom and freedom of expression.”
Former president Salome Zourabichvili, now a major opposition leader, tweeted: “The regime is paralyzed – too cowardly to free Mzia Amaghlobeli, too weak to convict her. It hides behind delays, hoping to survive. But her strength exposed their fear. This isn’t justice. It’s a dying authoritarian system.”
Rights watchdogs, including the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s TrialWatch, criticized the conduct of the trial and its outcome. “Fears of a regression in freedom of expression in Georgia cannot be overstated, particularly in the wake of disproportionate legal attacks on journalists like Mzia. Georgia must uphold its international commitments and ensure press freedom is protected,” said Kate Levine, Senior Legal Program Manager at TrialWatch.
The Amaghlobeli verdict comes as heat from the European Union and United States is rising. In late July, the EU threatened to revoke visa-free travel privileges for Georgian citizens. And now, a US congressional measure to ratchet up the pressure on the Georgian Dream government appears to have gotten back on a track toward passage.
After clearing the House of Representatives with strong bipartisan support, the MEGOBARI Act hit a procedural speed-bump in the Senate: fast-track approval in the chamber reportedly was recently blocked by opposition from three conservative Republican senators over concerns that the punitive measures outlined in the legislation were so sweeping that average Georgian citizens would suffer.
Opposition from the trio has reportedly eased, however, after they received assurances that the act’s provisions are targeted at the country’s leadership, which over the past has steered the country in an authoritarian direction while halting Georgia’s constitutionally mandated efforts to seek EU membership.
Over the past few weeks, government-controlled media outlets have carried out a smear campaign against Republican Congressman Joe Wilson, co-chair of the US Helsinki Commission and sponsor of the MEGOBARI Act, alleging that he has taken payments from a prominent Georgian opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM), funneled through a US-based lobbying firm. However, a Georgian fact-checking website, mythdetector.com, has debunked the claims, describing them as disinformation that “manipulatively links the hiring of a lobbying firm by the United National Movement party to Congressman Joe Wilson.”
In June, retiring US ambassador to Georgia Robin Dunnigan pre-empted any attempt by Georgian state-controlled media outlets to cast her as an impediment to good bilateral relations. In a statement distributed by the US Embassy in Tbilisi, Dunnigan emphasized her decision to leave her post before the end of her term was a “fully personal decision” and that she was not being forced out by the Trump Administration. In an interview with RFE/RL, Dunnigan maintained that Georgian Dream’s impresario, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, was mainly responsible for Georgia’s geopolitical about-face away from the United States and EU, saying he “is putting his personal interests above the interests of the country.”
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