The Court of Appeals has dashed all expectations, violated all formal rules, including deadlines, ignored our position, the Public Defender's position, and did not even review the case,” said Jumber Qatamadze, the lawyer for Mzia Amaghlobeli, head of Netgazeti and Batumelebi, in a statement to InterPressNews.

According to the lawyer, the defense has already begun work on filing a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Earlier today, Jumber Qatamadze visited Mzia Amaghlobeli in prison to check on her condition.

Despite Amaghlobeli starting a hunger strike in protest while in custody, her health condition is satisfactory, the lawyer noted.

“We visited Mzia today around 3:00 PM. Her health condition was satisfactory. No medical intervention has been needed so far, and she continues her hunger strike. She told me that she does not currently require medical supervision and feels fine. We have submitted a request to ensure constant monitoring of her health condition.

Regarding the Court of Appeals’ decision, it was illegal. We can confidently say this based on the materials the appellate court reviewed. All the evidence submitted to the Batumi City Court, along with the ruling on pretrial detention issued by the city court and our appeal, did not provide sufficient grounds to justify detention.

The Criminal Procedure Code explicitly states that if an alternative preventive measure exists to achieve the objectives of the measure, detention should not be applied. There were no circumstances warranting detention in this case.

As for the reasoning behind the decision, we will refrain from premature comments until the Court of Appeals provides us with the written explanation of its ruling. Once we receive it, we can provide a more detailed response.

The Court of Appeals has dashed all expectations. It violated formal procedures, including deadlines, and ignored both our position and that of the Public Defender. They didn’t even review the case. Domestically, we have no further mechanisms to appeal the preventive measure. The next court hearing is scheduled for March 4, during which the issue of detention will be reconsidered.

As for the application to the European Court of Human Rights, work on this has, of course, already begun. We are awaiting the detailed ruling from the Court of Appeals so we can include it in our submission. Once all the documents are gathered, we will determine our defense strategy, the timing of the appeal, and its direction in the Strasbourg Court,” Qatamadze stated.