The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) today strongly condemns the appeal court verdict upholding the two-year prison sentence handed down to Sakharov Prize Laureate Mzia Amaglobeli. As the defense will appeal this verdict to the Supreme Court, the EFJ continues to demand its overturn and Mzia Amaglobeli’s immediate release. The Supreme Court will have six months to review the case and issue a final decision.
On 18 November, the Kutaisi Court of Appeal upheld the Batumi City Court’s original ruling sentencing journalist Mzia Amaglobeli to two years in prison. The defense team sought a full acquittal, while prosecutors requested that Mzia’s sentence be increased to between four and seven years. The appeal verdict upholds the original conviction and sentencing in August 2025, which followed more than 200 days in unjust pretrial detention and a highly politicized trial, during which time the journalist’s health and eyesight seriously deteriorated.
On 12 January 2025, Mzia Amaglobeli was detained on charges of “resisting, threatening or using violence against a protector of public order or other representative of the authorities”. She was first arrested in Batumi the day before while putting up posters near the main police station calling for a national strike. She was released within two hours. Amaglobeli reportedly said that, when she was released, she found herself in a stampede in front of the police station and experienced pain in her hand due to being tightly restrained. In an instinctive gesture, she shook her hand forcefully, accidentally hitting a man in front of her, who was the chief of the Batumi police, Irakli Dgebuadze. The police immediately arrested her again.
Since her arrest and politically-motivated prosecution, Mzia Amaglobeli, co-founder and director of two of Georgia’s most prominent independent media outlets, Batumelebi and Netgazeti, has become a symbol for the fight for press freedom and democracy in Georgia, where the ruling Georgian Dream party is deepening its authoritarian crackdown on dissent.
Last month, Mzia Amaglobeli was awarded IPI 2025 World Press Freedom Hero award at a ceremony in Vienna.
On 22 October 2025, Mzia Amaglobeli, together with imprisoned Polish-Belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut, also became a laureate of the 2025 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, as a symbol of Georgia’s democratic resilience.
In her closing statement during the hearing, Mzia Amaglobeli said: “If we lose faith, the regime will inevitably imprison us repeatedly and will do everything it can to ensure that we are constantly humiliated, insulted, and even expelled from our own country. (…) I am not afraid of imprisonment; I am afraid of what I will find outside when I get out of prison. Will I find a country that fights for freedom, democracy, and a European future, or will I find a country conquered by propaganda and economic challenges… a country conquered by Russia without a tank?”
“Our colleague is the victim of political persecution, which demonstrates that the Georgian regime constantly flouts the rule of law and pursues a strategy of intimidating journalists that aims only to establish censorship,” said the EFJ President Maja Sever. “As the legal case goes ahead, the EFJ will continue to advocate for Mzia Amaglobeli’s release and defend press freedom in Georgia”.
Source: EFJ
