Journalists rally outside Rustavi prison to mark Mzia Amaghlobeli’s birthday

Georgian journalists gathered outside of Rustavi No. 5 Penitentiary Facility on Monday evening to show solidarity with detained media manager Mzia Amaghlobeli on her 50th birthday. The date also marked exactly four months since her arrest.

Amaghlobeli, the founder of Georgian media outlets Batumelebi and Netgazeti, was first detained on 11 January for hanging a poster at a pro-European rally in Batumi, but was later released that same day.

Within several minutes of her release, she was detained again on charges of slapping Batumi Police Chief Irakli Dgebuadze. The Prosecutor’s Office considered the slap an ‘attack on a police officer’ — a criminal offence which carries a prison sentence of four to seven years.

On Monday, Amaghlobeli’s colleagues and friends, all involved in media, arrived in front of the Rustavi prison chanting ‘Happy Birthday’ and slogans such as ‘Freedom for Mzia, freedom for prisoners of conscience!’.

As well as gathering in front of the prison, the demonstrators also congregated higher up on the hills behind, hoping that this vantage point would be visible from Amaghlobeli’s cell.

From there, they chanted ‘Free Mzia’ and sent paper lanterns into the sky with notes saying similar slogans as well as ‘Happy Birthday’.

Batumi Police Chief says Amaghlobeli could avoid imprisonment with ‘simple actions’

Irakli Dgebuadze claimed that he did not intend for the Batumelebi and Netgazeti director to be imprisoned.

OC MediaMikheil Gvadzabia