One day before the final hearing in the appellate case of Georgia’s imprisoned journalist Mzia Amaglobeli, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) has announced that it is filing a new application with the ECHR on behalf of her. The application concerns Mzia Amaglobeli’s unlawful administrative arrest and the violations committed in the course of the administrative offence proceedings conducted against her.
Statement by GYLA:
As is known to the public, a few hours before she was arrested under criminal law, the police initially detained Mzia Amaglobeli under administrative procedure and later initiated 2 cases of administrative offence proceedings in respect of the same factual circumstances. In both cases the domestic courts found Mzia Amaglobeli offender and imposed fines for non-compliance to a lawful order of the police and verbal insult of a police officer (Article 173) – in the amount of 2000 GEL, and for defacement of the appearance of a building by placing a sticker on the wall (Article 150) – in the amount of 1000 GEL.
The newly submitted application to the European Court of Human Rights argues that Mzia Amaglobeli’s administrative arrest, as well as the conduct of the administrative offence proceedings, resulted in a violation of such fundamental rights under the European Convention on Human Rights as the right to liberty and security (Article 5), the right to a fair trial (Article 6), freedom of expression (Article 10), freedom of assembly and association (Article 11), and the right to an effective remedy (Article 13) in conjunction with Article 5 of the Convention.
In particular:
- Right to Liberty and Security (Article 5 of the Convention) and the Right to an Effective Remedy (Article 13)
As established, on 11 January 2025 Mzia Amaglobeli was arrested by the Chief of the Adjara Police Department, Grigol Beselia, for placing a sticker with the slogan “Georgia is going on a strike” on the exterior facade of the auxiliary building of the Batumi City Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). During detention, the then Chief of the Batumi Police, Irakli Dgebuadze, stated that Mzia Amaglobeli was arrested under Article 150 for defacement of the appearance of a building. Notably, this Article does not consider the arrest by the police. Accordingly, in order to justify the unlawful deprivation of liberty, the police drew up a falsified administrative offence report under Article 173, which contained entirely incorrect information, including regarding the identity of the arresting officer. The application submitted to the Strasbourg Court emphasises that Mzia Amaglobeli’s arrest was routine and arbitrary, without any assessment of the individual circumstances of the case.
At the domestic level, Mzia Amaglobeli challenged her unlawful detention before the Ministry of Internal Affairs. On 31 January 2025, Mzia Amaglobeli and her representative were informed that the complaint addressed to the then Minister of Internal Affairs, Vakhtang Gomelauri, concerning the legality of the administrative detention, had been forwarded to the same body and the same person – the Director of the Adjara Police Department, Grigol Beselia, who had unlawfully arrested Mzia Amaglobeli. In addition to the fact that the review of the lawfulness of the detention was assigned to the person who had carried out the arrest himself, the complaint has not been examined to date. These circumstances, which also reflect a systemic deficiency in the legislation, render effective judicial control over the lawfulness of detention practically impossible, resulting in a violation of Article 13 of the Convention.
- Right to a Fair Trial (Article 6 of the Convention)
The application argues that in case under Article 173, the rights guaranteed by Articles 6(1) and 6(2) of the Convention were violated, insofar as the decisions of both the first-instance court and the court of appeals were unreasoned, and the factual and legal findings were false and inadequate. In reality, the case contains no evidence, apart from the statements of the police officers that would confirm either the alleged verbal insult by Mzia Amaglobeli or the police officers’ calls addressing her. Consequently, both judicial instances incorrectly distributed the burden of proof and found Mzia Amaglobeli offender based solely on the testimonies presented by the police officers, thereby breaching the standards of a fair trial.
- Freedom of Expression (Article 10 of the Convention), Freedom of Assembly and Association (Article 11)
On 30 April 2025 another administrative offence report was drawn up against Mzia Amaglobeli under Article 150, by which the MIA alleged that she had conducted defacement of the appearance of a building by placing a sticker. It is noteworthy that the administrative offence report was prepared by police officer Nodar Zenaishvili, who on 11 January had drafted Mzia Amaglobeli’s arrest report and had himself indicated the fact of placing the sticker as the motive for arrest. The application argues that, at a time when Mzia Amaglobeli had not verbally insulted the police officers and her act of placing a sticker had caused no damage, there was no legitimate ground justifying an interference with her rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association, and that the administrative proceedings were arbitrary and constituted targeted punishment of Mzia Amaglobeli.
It is noteworthy that the first application of Mzia Amaglobeli is already pending before the European Court of Human Rights in the expedited terms. The first case concerns the unlawful imposition of pre-trial detention as a preventive measure in the criminal proceedings, the conduct of an expert examination of Mzia Amaglobeli’s mobile phone on the basis of an unreasoned court order, and other violations committed during the criminal proceedings, in respect of which domestic remedies have already been exhausted. Additional applications concerning other violations of Mzia Amaglobeli’s rights will be lodged before the Strasbourg Court gradually.
