Hunger-striking journalist challenges Georgia’s government from jail

Colleague and investigative journalist Irma Dimidtradze says her boss had not been taking part in the daily anti-government protests.

But when Amaglobeli learned that a friend was among several protesters detained for putting up posters for an upcoming general strike, she rushed to the police station.

“People were chanting ‘sticking up posters is not a crime’, and to demonstrate that it is not a crime, Mzia did the same thing,” says Dimitradze.

Weeks earlier, as the protests took hold, the Georgian Dream government banned face masks at protests and increased fines for making “inscriptions or drawings” on building facades.

Amaglobeli was captured on video attaching a poster to the wall of a police station before she was led away by several officers.

“We learned later in the police report that she disobeyed a lawful order of the police that she was swearing and insulting them,” said Irma Dimitradze, adding that all of it was untrue.

She was charged with an administrative offence and released. Her niece, Iveta, was with other relatives waiting for her: “When Mzia came out, I even joked with her saying: ‘Look, if you wanted to rest, to have a day off, you did not need to do this.'”

But soon the situation escalated, and more arrests followed.

Amoglobeli was seen confronting Batumi police chief Irakli Dgeubadze. As he walked away, she grabbed him by his sleeve and slapped him.

Footage taken minutes afterwards shows her being led away by police.

Off camera, she is taunted with highly threatening and abusive language which witnesses have said is the voice of the chief of police.

Amaglobeli’s lawyers say he later spat in her face and refused to give her water or access to toilets. She was also denied access to her lawyers for several hours.

Batumi prosecutors argued that her slap was motivated by “revenge”. A judge rejected bail by her legal team and remanded her in pre-trial custody.