Mzia Amaglobeli, director of Batumelebi and Netgazeti, was convicted for the second time on June 18 for putting a sticker on the fence at the entrance of the Adjara Police Department. Batumi City Court Judge Mariana Pomaeva fined Mzia Amaglobeli, who has been in custody for over 5 months, GEL 1000 ($370).
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Mzia Amaglobeli was arrested twice on the night of January 11-12 during a protest rally at the Adjara Police Department. The first time was when she placed a sticker on the wall of an auxiliary building at the police entrance concerning a general strike planned for January 15. Prior to that, civil activist and Mzia Amaglobeli's friend, Tsiala Katamidze, was illegally arrested for placing the same sticker on the pavement in front of the police building's yard. Mzia then went to the rally and did the same. In the footage, Batumi Police Chief Irakli Dgebudze can be heard stating the reason for Mzia Amaglobeli's arrest: Article 150, which refers to the defacement of the appearance of a territory within the administrative boundaries of a municipality. The police do not have the right to arrest a person under Article 150, yet Mzia was illegally detained for an hour. According to witness testimonies, while in the Adjara Police building, Mzia Amaglobeli witnessed Irakli Dgebudze and others beating arrested participants of the rally.
After Mzia's release, the rally continued at the police building. Police officers arrested two of Mzia's relatives, the Gabaidze brothers, who had arrived at the rally after Mzia's arrest. Mzia Amaglobeli demanded an explanation from Irakli Dgebudze regarding the arrest of the Gabaidze brothers, at which point he slapped her.
Video footage of the incident shows Irakli Dgebudze swearing and threatening Mzia, saying "I will arrest you under criminal code." Indeed, a criminal case was initiated against her under Article 353 Prima, Part 1 of the Criminal Code, which refers to assaulting a police officer. However, the initial report, on which the investigation was based, originally stated "insult." The law only considers insult an administrative offense and does not qualify it as a crime at all.
After this, the Batumi Police fabricated a false administrative offense protocol against Mzia Amaglobeli concerning the sticker incident, under Article 173, Part 1 of the Administrative Offenses Code. Police officers gave false testimonies, claiming that Mzia Amaglobeli was insulting them, which did not happen and for which no evidence exists. The prosecutor's office used this circumstance to impose pre-trial detention as a preventive measure on Mzia Amaglobeli in the slapping case, even before the court had reviewed the fabricated case. Despite the lack of evidence that Mzia insulted anyone, on March 18, Judge Salikh Shainidze found her guilty of an administrative offense and fined her GEL 2000 ($735).
A new administrative offense protocol regarding the sticker incident, citing defacement of appearance, was drawn up three and a half months after the event, on April 30.
Two days earlier, on April 28, Grigol Beselia, the former head of the Adjara Police, testified as a witness in Mzia Amaglobeli's criminal case that an administrative offense protocol had also been drawn up against Mzia Amaglobeli under Article 150. Two days after Beselia's testimony, police officer Nodar Zenaishvili drew up the offense protocol. Judge Mariana Pomaeva found Mzia Amaglobeli guilty of an administrative offense and fined her GEL 1000 ($370).
Mzia Amaglobeli did not attend the hearing, nor did she participate remotely.
