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Georgia: Telephone justice faces test in prosecution of media executive [1]
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Date: 2025-08
Authorities in Georgia are hesitating as they look for a way out of a public relations trap of their own making concerning the criminal prosecution of a media executive for an infraction that the defense contends was an administrative offense meriting a ticket at most.
Mzia Amaghlobeli, the founder of two groundbreaking, independent newspapers Netgazeti and Batumelebi, will face a prison sentence of up to seven years when the verdict is expected to be announced on August 6 in the Black Seaside city of Batumi. Rights activists have cast the trial as a milestone case of disproportionate punishment amid the Georgian Dream-dominated government’s slide toward authoritarianism.
In her closing statement August 4, Amaghlobeli derided the proceedings as rigged, while declaring herself as the moral “winner” of the trial.
Until recently, the editor’s supporters widely expected a guilty verdict was a foregone conclusion. But the court, which originally scheduled to pronounce its verdict on August 1, has repeatedly postponed announcing the decision. The delays are fueling speculation that authorities are now searching for a way to mitigate the PR pounding that would likely accompany a conviction in the case.
Amaghlobeli stated in court on August 4 that prosecutors have offered a plea bargain deal, seeking a face-saving way out of their predicament. She has rejected it.
““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,” she said. She compared accepting such a bargain to “being buried alive.”
Amaghlobeli’s prosecution for assault stems from an incident in January during which she and others were taken into custody during an anti-government protest. Detainees alleged that security forces used excessive force while making the arrests. Released after spending a night in jail, she subsequently engaged in a verbal altercation with a police chief, and in the heat of the moment, slapped him after he reportedly insulted her. She was immediately taken back into custody, adding that amid this re-arrest she experienced physical abuse at the hands of police.
“Mzia Amaghlobeli’s case is a mirror of how the government abuses power. … and how it tries to present the victim as the abuser and the abuser as the victim,” said her defense lawyer, Maia Mtsariashvili, during closing arguments.
The editor’s defenders maintain a criminal charge for Amaghlobeli’s actions is unwarranted, and her conduct should have instead been classified as an administrative offense under Article 173 of Georgia’s Administrative Legal Code.
The Clooney Foundation for Justice’s TrialWatch initiative has monitored Amaghlobeli’s proceedings, highlighting shortcomings that would call into question the fairness of a criminal conviction.
The criminal charge against Amaghlobeli, for example, required the state to prove that she committed a “violent act.” According to Clooney Foundation monitors, however, prosecutors did not present evidence during the trial that proved the defendant’s slap met the criminal charge standard. In addition, a medical expert testified at the trial that an examination conducted on the police chief soon after the “slap” showed no “objective sign” of injury.
In a statement issued August 4, the Clooney Foundation noted Amaghlobeli’s trial “has come to symbolize the growing concern over the shrinking space for free expression in Georgia,” while reiterating concerns over “how the proceedings were conducted.”
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