Georgian court sends newspaper founder to pretrial detention over protest action

By Lucy Papachristou

(Reuters) - A court in Georgia ordered a media director to be sent to pretrial detention on Tuesday for allegedly assaulting a police officer at a rally over the weekend, the Interpress news agency reported.

Authorities in the South Caucasus country are pursuing criminal cases against dozens of individuals as protesters continue to take to the streets nightly in anger over the government's decision in November to freeze EU accession talks until 2028.

Mzia Amaghlobeli, founder and director of news outlets Batumelebi and Netgazeti, was arrested on Saturday outside a police station in Batumi, a city on the Black Sea coast, where she and others had gathered to call for a nationwide strike.

Video published by Georgian television shows Amaghlobeli speaking heatedly with the police chief, Irakli Dgebuadze, before slapping him in the face, prompting a scuffle between protesters and officers, many of them clad in black ski masks.

Amaghlobeli's supporters told media the footage, which was broadcast by the pro-government Imedi channel, does not show the full altercation.

Women in Journalism, an advocacy group, called her arrest a "blatant attack on press freedom" in a post on X.

The legal organisation representing Amaghlobeli, who faces up to seven years in prison if found guilty, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Amaghlobeli could not be reached for comment in detention.

Georgia has been roiled by political crisis since an October parliamentary election which the opposition says was stolen by the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Critics say Georgian Dream is driving the country, traditionally one of the most pro-Western states to emerge from the collapse of the Soviet Union, in an authoritarian and pro-Russian direction.

The election results sparked street protests in Georgia and the rallies grew considerably after Tbilisi said in November it would freeze accession talks to join the EU until 2028.

The pro-EU protests have been met with a crackdown by police, with rights groups pointing to hundreds of arrests and beatings. The government has defended the police's actions.

(Reporting and writing by Lucy Papachristou. Editing by Angus MacSwan)