Mzia Amaghlobeli's case is politically motivated and unjust, said Gulnoza Said, the director of the Europe and Central Asia program, in an interview with Voice of America.

According to Said, Amaghlobeli's imprisonment is a very serious violation of press freedom.

She urges Georgian officials to immediately release Mzia Amaghlobeli and provide necessary and essential medical care.

"First of all, the fact that [Mzia] is in prison is a very serious violation of press freedom. We are deeply concerned about her health and life due to the hunger strike she is currently on. Unfortunately, it seems that hunger strike is the only way to protest the treatment she is receiving. This is clearly a political and politicized case.

She is targeted for her journalistic work. Therefore, our position is that she should be released, so that she is not in such a critical condition as her lawyers and colleagues are describing.

However, if the government continues the investigation, they should ensure that no politicized treatment will be directed towards [Mzia], which is simply because of her activities. Also, there is no need to keep her in prison during the investigation. The punishment for the alleged crime she committed could be 4 to 7 years in prison, which is clearly disproportionate to the actions of a journalist. Georgian officials must take this into account. Especially considering the general context of several clashes between protesters and police, those in a similar position to Mzia were not treated the way she is being treated now.

You know, in the last few years, Georgia has become a semi-autocracy. Unfortunately, the tactics used in the case of this hunger-striking prisoner are similar to the methods of prison administrations in other authoritarian countries. For example, it closely resembles the tactics used in Azerbaijan. We have seen many cases in Azerbaijan where journalists go on hunger strikes. They resort to different types of long, sometimes months-long hunger strikes because it is the only way for them to draw attention to their cases, to protest the charges and the treatment they are receiving," said Gulnoza Said.

She further stated, "Unfortunately, what we see now in Georgia is similar to Azerbaijan, and this is very concerning because Georgia was known as the most free country in the Caucasus."

"We at the Committee to Protect Journalists do not have a methodology to determine if someone is a political prisoner. But if you look at other human rights organizations, when the case is politically motivated—meaning the person is deliberately targeted and deprived of their freedom, arrested, or treated unjustly because of their work as a journalist, activist, or human rights defender—then it is a political case, and they are political prisoners.

So, according to many organizations, Mzia is a [political prisoner]. Many organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, believe this case is politicized, and she is being targeted and distinguished because of her and her colleagues' journalistic work.

Mzia's case, as well as the cases of other journalists who are targeted and treated unjustly because of their work, shows that press freedom in Georgia is clearly regressing. Observing the government's policy, seeing how they are distancing themselves from the European Union and what was once their country's main goal, which the majority of Georgians support, seeing how often they violate press freedom and general human rights is very sorrowful. Especially for me, as someone who has worked in press freedom for many years," Said said in an interview with Voice of America.