Amnesty International on Wednesday called for a fully transparent and impartial investigation into the conviction and two-year sentence handed down to Georgian journalist Mzia Amaglobeli, amid serious allegations of ill-treatment and an unfair trial.
Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, stated, “Mzia Amaglobeli must receive a fair trial, and the abuses she has suffered must also be independently investigated and addressed to ensure justice.”
The outrage in the aftermath of her sentencing has been especially profound, with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) deeming it “disproportionate and politicized.” Amaglobeli, an internationally revered journalist and founder of the online news outlets Gazeti Batumelebi and Netzgazeti, has been held in pretrial detention for over 200 days since her arrest in January of this year over charges of violating Article 353, paragraph 1 of the Georgian Criminal Code.
This provision outlines that the offense of attacking a police officer, employee of the Special Penitentiary Service, or other representative authority warrants imprisonment for a term of four to seven years. She had been charged under this section after a heated verbal escalation with police officers in which they had made sexualized threats and insults, leading to her slapping the police chief. According to Transparency International, the law is problematic and unconstitutional, because the statute has failed to define the term “attack,” meaning that courts are offered a wide and dangerous margin of discretion in deciding whether to imprison an individual or not avenue that is easily weaponized by political powers. In addition to the ambiguity in the law, Amaglobeli had not been briefed on the justifications behind her detention, as required under Article 245 of the Administrative Offenses Code, making her detention illegal.
Additionally, the Batumi City Court judge Nino Sakhelashvili imposed pretrial detention on her without first examining the evidentiary basis presented by the prosecution, which included unsubstantiated claims such as risks of flight, non-appearance in court, destruction of important evidence, or commission of a new crime. Therefore, the charges levied against Amaglobeli were due to her commitment to ensure transparency in news reporting on cases of corruption in the country, making the prosecution’s case factually unsound.
In prison, Amaglobeli’s health had severely deteriorated, and she had been denied access to medical treatment, a testament to the growing trend of dehumanizing treatment affecting rights activists in the country, where they are seen as enemies of the state, instead of symbols of resilience in a time of uncertainty.
