Tbilissi, Georgia – The imprisoned journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli weakens each day while her hunger strike reached three weeks in Rustavi, a city near the Georgian capital of Tbilissi, said her lawyer. Now, the 49 -year -old man is struggling to browse the short distance from his cell to the room where they usually meet, and human rights officials, colleagues and the fear of the family for his life .
Amaghlobeli was arrested on January 12 during a antigo -government In the coastal city of Batumi, one of the more than 40 people in detention for criminal charges of a series of demonstrations that have hit the southern Caucasus nation by 3.7 million in recent months.
The political turmoil follows a parliamentary election which was won by the Georgian party Dream in power, although his opponents allege that the vote was rigged.
Its result pushed Georgia further on the orbit of influence of Russia. Georgia has succeeded in joining the European Union, but the party suspended membership with the block after the elections.
While he was trying to consolidate his grip on power, the Georgian dream repressed freedom of assembly and expression in what the opposition said is similar to the president Vladimir Putin’s actions in neighboring Russiahis former imperial sovereign.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze defended the actions of his government, accusing the demonstrators of seeking “to inflict damage to the state” and to try to stage a revolution similar to uprising in Ukraine in 2014 which ousted a chief Pro-Kremlin.
Georgian Dream last year adopted a series of laws similar to those in Russia imposing restrictions on rights defense and media groups and seriously reducing LGBTQ +rights. These laws, condemned by the EU, also attracted demonstrations.
The former president of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, independent politicianwas among the most vocal criticisms of the Georgian dream, accusing him of electoral interference and of calling the elections last year a “total fraud”. According to the reuters news agency, two international surveys based in the United States agreed with this evaluation, qualifying the statistically impossible results.
On December 3, 2024, the Constitutional Court of Georgia rejected Zurabishvili’s appeal to cancel the results of parliamentary elections, exacerbating tension in the streets. It was ousted at the end of 2024 under new parliamentary mechanisms brought under Kobakhidze, leaving the presidential palace but refusing to recognize its unadumped successor as a legitimate president of the country.
Russia firmly opposes many aspirations of Georgians to see their country join both the EU and the NATO military alliance led by the United States, and it has exploited its economic influence and Policy to try to prevent the country from aligning itself with Western institutions. Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 And it continues to occupy The regions of southern and abkhazia Ossetia.
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In an interview with 60 minutes last yearZurabishvili accused Russia of subtle but impactful efforts to influence Georgian policy, calling it to be part of a broader “hybrid war” of Moscow against the West. She said that Russia’s tactics included the spread of disinformation, the economic pressure and the manipulation of internal policy to prevent Georgia from fully integrating into its European neighbors in the West.
Amaghlobeli, founder of two main independent media in Georgia, faces accusations of having attacked a police officer, with a possible prison sentence of up to seven years.
Many people detained by police said they were physically and verbally mistreated by the police or in detention. International human rights groups sound the alarm.
“All this portrays an image of an aggressive campaign to stop these demonstrations, the vast majority of which would have been peaceful,” said Alice Jill Edwards, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or degrading, degrading, degrading torture or punishment or punishment, inhuman said the Associated Press.
A video published by the media has shown that AmaghloBeli guttaling the Batumi police chief in the demonstration. Witnesses and his lawyers say that the police abused her physically and verbally in advance, and slap was his reaction on this subject.
The abuses continued in detention, when the police chief “spit in the face of Mzia and denied his access to drinking water or using the toilet,” Juba Sikharulidze told AP.
Authorities were investigating the accusations, the lawyer said. The Ministry of the Interior did not respond to a request for comments AP.
Kobakhidze said that the authorities would investigate any excessive use of force, but in the case of Amaghlobeli, his actions came “in front of the cameras”.
“This crime is absolutely clear,” said the Prime Minister.
Jerome Gilles / NURPHOTO / GETTY
Amaghlobeli, who founded the independent media sites Batumenlebi and Netgazeti, started a hunger strike protesting it, and now defenders of Georgian and Western rights say that his life is in danger.
Michael O’Flaherty, the human rights commissioner of the Council of the Council, told Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty that the situation of Amaghlobeli “required urgent action”.
“It is not only a question of freedom and imprisonment – it is a question of life and death. And I really hope that the authorities will act with the necessary speed in this extremely difficult situation, ”said O’Flaherty cited by the point of sale.
The arrest of Amaghlobeli had a scary effect on other journalists, said Nestan Tsetskhladze, editor -in -chief of Netgazeti.
“If this is how they treat the most important independent media founder, a director and a director of the media who is free from any political influence and influential groups, others can be treated in the same way” , Tsetskhladze told AP.
Jerome Gilles / NURPHOTO / GETTY
Andro Chichinadze, a theater and cinema actor. Chichinazde, 28, actively participated in the demonstrations that revived in November.
The police went down to his home and arrested him on December 5, and he faces accusations of “participation in group violence”, liable to a sentence of up to nine years in prison.
His lawyers say that the prosecutors have videos of Chichinadze swinging a stick and throwing a bottle, which alleys was launched by the police. They also say that there is no evidence that he has struck anyone and that no one has come forward as the victim of his alleged violence.
Chichinadze denied the accusations. During a prior detention hearing, he compared himself to a “character of Kafka who is in judgment and could not understand what is happening to him”.
His mother, Lika Gutntsadze, called the case against her “absurd, just absurd” son in an interview with AP.
More arrests – so far on small “administrative” accusations punishable by fines or short stays in prison – took place during the weekend, during continuous demonstrations in Tbilisi. Police said a total of 31 people on Monday.
According to the media, some were published shortly after. Many have pointed out physical violence by the police during their arrest and after being taken to police vans, according to the Public Defender’s office in Georgia, a human rights mediator elected by Parliament.
Georgian Dream announced on Monday his intention to adopt more severe sanctions for criminal and administrative offenses, the demonstrators of which can be accused, including a prison sentence, higher fines and prison terms.
Eka Gigauri, executive director of Transparency International Georgie, told AP that she thought that the government “used the Russian and Belarusian game book” in the targeting of government opponents.
“There is nothing new in the way they attack civic activists,” she said. “It happened in Russia years ago.”
The mother of Andro Chichinadze, the actor who was arrested, echoes this feeling, describing the repression which followed the aspirations of Georgia to join the EU.
“We have chosen Europe and were taken to Russia,” said Lika Gutntsadze.