Tbilisi City Court has fined a person for a comment made on Facebook about an Interior Ministry representative. The case followed a series of fines imposed on several government critics over social media posts.
Tuesday’s decision was first reported by lawyer Giorgi Chkheidze. He stated that his client was fined ₾2,500 ($920) over a comment referring to a ministry lawyer, Tamta Kimbarishvili.
‘The position of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the court is that an obscene comment made on Facebook constitutes an insult to a public official and, therefore, a legal offense’, Chkheidze wrote on social media.
Later, the lawyer spoke to RFE/RL about the details. The media identified Chkheidze’s client as Diana Gogoladze, reporting that she had been fined for leaving a comment on a post by Lasha Chkhartishvili, a member of the Labor Party, on 27 April.
Chkhartishvili’s post concerned one of his court cases related to blocking the road during anti-government protests, for which he has been fined multiple times. In the post, Chkhartishvili stated that Kimbarishvili had requested his arrest at the trial. He also attached a photo of the lawyer, calling her a ‘slave-executioner, sadist, and potential killer’.
On a post that had dozens of comments, including harsh ones, Gogoladze wrote: ‘A young woman and such a bitch’. The comment — selected by the Interior Ministry based on unknown criteria — served as the basis for the fine.
According to the lawyer, the comment ‘may be unpleasant to read, but it falls within the scope of freedom of expression […] at least, that’s how it has been understood so far’.
Gogoladze was charged under one of the many laws passed by Georgian Dream amidst the ongoing anti-government protests, which made insulting officeholders an administrative offence. The article provides for both an fine of up to ₾4,000 ($1,500) or administrative arrest for up to 45 days.
In the past month, the courts began fining and arresting citizens for verbal confrontations with Georgian Dream representatives, including sending two students to administrative detention.
Later, based on a complaint from Georgian Dream, punishment was extended to critics of the government for social media posts that the ruling party, and subsequently the courts, deemed insulting. Against this backdrop, numerous politicians, journalists, and activists have been fined for their posts.
However, Chkheidze noted ‘this is the first case involving a comment on Facebook’.
On Wednesday, late in the afternoon, Chkhartishvili posted on social media that the court had also fined him over the same Facebook post for which Gogoladze had been fined for a comment.
The post’s author was fined ₾4,000 ($1,500).
OC Media
