“Our motion at the court hearing was based on the conduct constituting the offense. Since court decisions cannot be merely formal in nature, we deemed it necessary to request detention as part of our motion in this case,” Mariam Kereselidze, a representative of the Division for Combating Hate Speech, told journalists.

According to her, journalist Vakho Sanaia was the first person against whom the Ministry of Internal Affairs had brought a third case related to insulting a state political official.

“Our motion at the court hearing was based on the conduct constituting the offense. After reviewing the previous court decision, he published a ‘post’ that also contained offensive expressions. Accordingly, we believe this constituted disregard for the court decision and a willingness to continue engaging in conduct constituting an offense. I would like to note that Mr. Vakhtang Sanaia does not attend court hearings, does not pay the fines imposed by the court, and continues to engage in conduct constituting an offense alongside the court proceedings. Since court decisions cannot be merely formal in nature, we deemed it necessary to request detention as part of our motion in this case.

“In reality, there was no distancing from the offensive expression. This was a form of ironic and implicit insult, through which he himself disseminated offensive epithets and was himself responsible for spreading them. Therefore, his supposed distancing could not be considered a circumstance excluding liability. When assessing freedom of expression, whether a particular statement falls within the scope of freedom of expression cannot be determined solely by its literary and grammatical structure. In evaluating a sentence, the purpose, context, and content are relevant. In our view, the statement was assessed as offensive expression, and the court also accepted this assessment,” Mariam Kereselidze said.

For reference, today, the Tbilisi City Court sentenced journalist Vakho Sanaia to 14 days of administrative detention over a social media post concerning Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili and MP Vladimir Bozhadze. The decision was issued by Judge Zviad Tsekvava. The Division for Combating Hate Speech, established within the Ministry of Internal Affairs to respond legally to the post, had appealed to the Tbilisi City Court.