GYLA: Hearings have been scheduled for February 17 in the Batumi court against protesters and Mzia Amaglobeli - it is inadmissible to schedule a trial without notifying the party
Hearings have been scheduled for February 17 in the Batumi court against the participants of the rally who were arrested on January 11. Among the scheduled hearings is the case of the violation of the law against Mzia Amaglobeli. However, the hearing was scheduled without informing either Mzia Amaglobeli or her lawyers about it, which constitutes a violation, - reads a statement issued by the Georgian Young Lawyers Association.
According to GYLA, it is inadmissible to schedule and discuss a violation process without notifying the party.
“We would like to remind the public that on January 11, 2025, activists gathered in Batumi held a protest rally and put up stickers with the inscription - "Georgia is on strike on January 15, at 15:00". During the rally, the police began to arbitrarily detain the participants of the rally. When Mzia Amaglobeli learned that her friend and colleague, Tsiala Katamidze, had been arrested, she herself went to the rally site and took the sticker from one of the people, which she had put up on the wall. At that time, she was administratively detained for putting up the sticker. About an hour after the arrest, Mzia Amaglobeli was released. There is footage of Mzia Amaglobeli’s administrative detention, where it is seen that the head of Adjara Police, Grigol Beselia, himself detains her immediately after she puts up the sticker, and Mzia Amaglobeli submits to his illegal detention without any resistance or verbal comment.
The Code of Administrative Offenses establishes a list of grounds on which a police officer is authorized to detain a person. Temporary placement of a sticker on the fence of a building cannot be considered defacement, and the same Code does not prohibit temporary placement of a sticker on administrative buildings. Even if this action were considered defacement, an MIA employee does not have the authority to detain a person for this action. In order to disguise the arbitrary and illegal detention of Mzia Amaglobeli, the police drew up a detention report under Article 173 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which was not handed over to Mzia during her detention. The detention report contained false information that Mzia Amaglobeli had cursed and insulted the police before her detention, which is a complete lie. This lie is confirmed by the video footage of Mzia Amaglobeli's detention. On January 21, 2025, the administrative detention report was appealed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs on behalf of Mzia Amaglobeli, however, no decision has been made regarding the appeal at this time,” reads the statement.
For information, Mzia Amaglobeli has been transferred from the penitentiary institution to the Vivamedi clinic for medical examinations. She has been on hunger strike for 35 days.
Mzia Amaglobeli is being detained under Article 353 of the Criminal Code, which refers to assault on a police officer. Mzia Amaglobeli slapped the local police chief, Irakli Dgebuadze, during a protest in front of the main police department in Batumi.
