Mzia Amaghlobeli’s lawyers sue Georgian Prime Minister for defamation

The lawyers of Mzia Amaghlobeli — the imprisoned director of Batumelebi and Netgazeti — will sue Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze for defamation, following statements made by him suggesting that she was ‘tasked’ to discredit Georgian police.

Kobakhidze made the remarks in an interview with pro-government TV Rustavi 2, where he claimed that during her arrest in Batumi in mid-January, Amaghlobeli was carrying out an ‘assignment’ by slapping Batumi police chief Irakli Dgebuadze.

‘She was fulfilling a specific task when she insulted a police officer. Her mission was to discredit the police and offend their dignity’, said the Prime Minister on 16 April.

Kobakhidze did not say what his claim was based on, nor did he reveal on whose instructions Amaghlobeli had allegedly acted on before getting arrested.

On Friday, one of Amaghlobeli’s lawyers, Maia Mtsariashvili, stated that Kobakhidze’s remarks are part of a coordinated campaign by the authorities against the detained media manager.

‘These statements are not only defamatory, but they also grossly violate Mzia’s presumption of innocence. We will take legal action over these defamatory and rights-violating remarks’, she added.

She added that if the Georgian court does not recognise Kobakhidze's remarks as a violation of the presumption of innocence and an act of defamation, Amaghlobeli’s lawyers will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.

Amaghlobeli 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 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.

The case against Amaghlobeli is widely seen as being politically motivated and as punishment for her journalistic work.

On 28 April, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) announced that it had filed a complaint with the ECHR in regards to Amaghlobeli’s case.

GYLA argued that her arrest and imprisonment violated a number of clauses of the convention, including the right to liberty and security, the right to a fair trial, the right to respect for private and family life, the right to freedom of expression, the right to an effective remedy, and the limitation of the use of restrictions on rights.

In its statement, GYLA said the circumstances of Amaghlobeli’s arrest and subsequent detention demonstrate that her ‘imprisonment and criminal prosecution are illegal and constitute political repression’.

Opinion | Mzia Amaghlobeli is a political prisoner

The authorities in Georgia go to extreme lengths to pursue opponents of the government, while giving tacit approval to those who attack such opponents.

OC MediaMariam Nikuradze