Batumelebi and Netgazeti founder detained on criminal charges

Georgian police have detained Mzia Amaghlobeli, the founder and director of news outlets Batumelebi and Netgazeti on charges of ‘attacking a police officer’. Independent media in Georgia warn that Amaghlobeli’s detention was politically motivated. If found guilty, she could face up to seven years in prison.

Amaghlobeli was charged on Monday after being detained twice by the police on Saturday during a protest outside the police department in Batumi, western Georgia.

She was first administratively detained for sticking a poster on a fence outside the police department calling for the participation in a nationwide strike on Wednesday. She had done so in protest against the detention of her colleague, Tsiala Katamidze, for putting up the same poster on the street.

She was released on the same day but was quickly detained again on criminal charges of attacking a police officer.

Following her second detention, pro-government media outlets and social media personalities widely circulated a short video showing Amaghlobeli arguing with Irakli Dgebuadze, Batumi’s police chief, before slapping him in the face. The prosecution considered this an ‘attack on a police officer’ — a criminal offence which carries a prison sentence of four to seven years.

Despite the footage showing Amaghlobeli slapping Dgebuadze, many independent media outlets and civil society activists have accused pro-government media of purposefully obfuscating how the police treated Amaghlobeli and the protesters gathered at the scene.

‘A response to police humiliation’

Batumelebi’s editor-in-chief, Eter Turadze, was with Amaghlobeli at the time of her detention. Turadze told OC Media that Amaghlobeli’s detention, as the manager of an independent regional media outlet, was planned in advance as a provocation.

According to Turadze, after news of Amaghlobeli’s first administrative detention spread, her relatives arrived at the police department. After her release, Amaghlobeli was speaking to her relatives as the demonstration was dying down when, as Turadze said, ‘the door suddenly opened, police officers rushed in, and began detaining Mzia’s associates’.

‘This led to a huge scuffle, panic, hysteria, and pushing’, Turadze added, stating that the police treated Amaghlobeli aggressively and insulted her.

‘They dragged Mzia and insulted us. It was unimaginable verbal abuse and assault. We were all cursed at. During the scuffle, Mzia lost one of her shoes’, Turadze told OC Media.

Turadze further explained that Amaghlobeli's action was not an ‘attack’ but a reaction to the insult from the police, specifically from Dgebuadze.

‘It was a response to the humiliation coming from the police — they insulted, dragged us, and cursed at us, and it was a situation where a person could lose control of themselves because they were completely defenceless. It was an instinctive defence reaction’, Turadze said.

Turadze also mentioned that Amaghlobeli was denied access to her lawyer during her administrative detention for several hours, and during her second detention, she was mistreated by Dgebuadze.

According to Turadze, these and other factors suggest that the police had already prepared for Amaghlobeli’s detention and knew what damage it would cause to the media organisation.

On Monday, Batumelebi released video footage, which, according to the news outlet, captures the moment of Amaghlobeli’s second detention. The video includes verbal abuse and threats directed at her by Dgebuadze during the detention.

The following day, on Sunday, Batumelebi’s cameraman, Guram Murvanidze, was detained during another protest in Batumi while he was filming the police detaining demonstrators.

According to a statement from Batumelebi and its sister organisation Netgazeti, Murvanidze’s account shows that police aggression towards him intensified after he identified himself as a member of Batumelebi’s team. The lawyer claimed that Dgebuadze personally instructed the police to detain Murvanidze.

Murvanidze was charged with disorderly conduct and disobeying the police.

Amaghlobeli’s detention sparked a swift reaction from the media community and civil society, with solidarity actions being held in both Tbilisi and Batumi.

On 13 January, representatives of independent media outlets, professional organisations, and media rights activists issued a joint statement, demanding her release. The statement addressed the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Special Investigative Service, international organisations, and the diplomatic corps.

‘The incident is another attack on free media’, wrote the PEN Center of Georgia which also issued a statement in solidarity with Amaghlobeli.

Batumelebi was founded in 2001 as an independent media outlet focused on covering human rights violations and official corruption. In 2010, Batumelebi’s founders established the Tbilisi-based news outlet Netgazeti.

‘It will be very difficult to work without Mzia, as she was the soul, the head, and the mind of all of this. Managing this without her will be very hard, and they know it. The goal of this government is to destroy independent media’, Turadze tells OC Media.

Over the weekend, police detained 20 people during protests in Batumi — among them Amaghlobeli and Murvanidze.