On April 23, Batumi City Court was due to hear another case involving imprisoned Georgian journalist and Sakharov Prize laureate Mzia Amaglobeli, but the hearing was postponed until May 11.
The case concerns an incident on January 11, 2025, when Amaglobeli placed a sticker on the fence of the Adjara Police Department building. She has already been tried twice over the same act, which she says was an exercise of her constitutionally protected freedom of expression. This time, the dispute is not about whether the act constituted an administrative offense, but whether her arrest was lawful.
Even if an offense was committed, the key question is whether it was necessary for police to detain a woman for placing a sticker on a fence.
In December 2025, Batumi City Court Judge Aleksandre Goguadze refused to admit for consideration the case on the legality of Amaglobeli’s detention, a decision that contradicts the established practice of the Georgian Supreme Court. The Kutaisi Court of Appeal overturned this decision, returned the case to the lower court, and instructed the judge to examine it.
If the court determines that Amaglobeli’s arrest was unlawful, this could serve as an important argument before the ECHR, which is already reviewing her administrative offence case involving falsified records, as well as her criminal case based on what her lawyers say are false police testimonies.
Notably, her pre-trial detention in the criminal case relied on the administrative offense and arrest. The prosecution argued – and the court agreed – that there was a risk of “continuation of the offense,” citing her prior administrative detention and the allegation that, after her release, she slapped a police officer.
“After the administrative body (the Ministry of Internal Affairs) refused to declare the detention unlawful, we applied to the court” said Nino Khutsishvili, a lawyer with the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) and one of Amaglobeli’s defence attorneys, outlining the chronology of the case.
According to Khutsishvili, the Batumi court argued it could not review the legality of the detention once the person had already been found guilty of an administrative offense – an interpretation she says contradicts both legislation and Supreme Court practice. The defence appealed, and the Kutaisi Court of Appeal, relying on established case law, returned the case to the first instance, noting that it had not been examined at all.
Under current legislation, the judge reviewing an administrative offense is not authorized to simultaneously assess the legality of the detention within the same proceedings – a gap that rights advocates consider a flaw in the law. The European Court of Human Rights has also criticized this approach in several cases against Georgia as ineffective.
Despite this, Khutsishvili says the same issue persists: more than a year after Amaglobeli’s arrest on January 11, 2025, no court had reviewed its legality. The case remained effectively frozen at the administrative level, awaiting the outcome of the offense proceedings. Only after the defence pushed for a decision did the Ministry rule that the detention had been lawful, in December 2025.
The defence then appealed to the court, but Judge Goguadze not only rejected the complaint but refused to admit it for consideration. After another appeal, the Kutaisi Court of Appeal ordered him to review the case, emphasizing that national law allows the legality of detention to be challenged independently of the administrative offense.
Khutsishvili argues that the judge’s reasoning is contradictory: “even if an offense occurred, it is a separate question whether detention was necessary; if no offense occurred, then the detention is clearly unlawful”.
Because the case will again be heard by Judge Goguadze, he cannot refuse to admit it this time, though he may still rule against the complaint. He will be required to justify the legality of the detention.
Even if the court finds the detention unlawful, due to legislative gaps, this would not substantially change Amaglobeli’s current situation, as the administrative case has already concluded. However, such a finding would formally establish the illegality of her detention and could strengthen her case before the European Court of Human Rights.
Amaglobeli was first detained during a protest on January 11, 2025, after placing a sticker reading “Georgia goes on strike” near a police department entrance. As police lack authority to detain someone for placing a sticker, officers claimed she had insulted them.
Video footage contradicts official records: it shows that she was detained by then Director of Adjara police Grigol Beselia, while official documents state she was detained by another officer. Despite these inconsistencies, on March 18, 2025, a judge found her liable and fined her 2,000 GEL.
During a later criminal hearing on April 28, 2025, Beselia’s testimony was challenged by the defence, including his claim that a protocol had been drawn up under a specific article – when, in fact, no such document existed at the time. Two days later, a new violation report was issued against Amaglobeli.
On June 18, 2025, she was tried again for the same act of placing a sticker and fined an additional 1,000 GEL. Her appeal was rejected by the Kutaisi Court of Appeal in September 2025.
Mzia Amaglobeli is the founder of the media outlets Batumelebi and Netgazeti. She was arrested twice during the night of January 11-12, and sentenced to two years in prison. There are several cases against her, that are widely seen as politically motivated. On December 16, 2025, while in detention, she was awarded the European Union’s top human rights honour, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought together with Belarussian imprisoned journalist Andrzej Poczobut. The European Court of Human Rights has already begun reviewing one of her complaints.
