Defence points out signs of falsification in Mziya Amaglobeli’s case
An advocate of journalist Mziya Amaglobeli has filed an appeal against her administrative arrest in the case on insulting a police officer. The defence has submitted to the court an expert analysis of the video recording, indicating signs of falsification of evidence by the police.
On May 29, the Kutaisi Court of Appeal was supposed to consider the Mziya Amaglobeli’s appeal in the case on administrative detention. However, the hearing was postponed until June 19 due to the inclusion in the case of an authoritative French expert’s opinion, according to which there was manipulation of video evidence in the case by the police.
The journalist’s defence filed an appeal against the decision of the Batumi City Court of March 18, according to which Mziya Amaglobeli was fined 2000 laris. When making the decision, the judge relied on the video evidence submitted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) as a video recording taken before the journalist’s administrative detention. The defence, however, claimed that the two 18-second videos were recorded not before the detention of Mziya Amaglobeli, but after the journalist, who was under administrative arrest, was released on bail.
Mziya Amaglobeli was initially subjected to administrative detention at 10:58 p.m. on January 11. After being released from the administrative arrest, the journalist was soon arrested on a criminal case. The video recording, which the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) submitted in the administrative case as footage taken before the Mziya Amaglobeli’s administrative detention, was in fact filmed on January 12, several minutes before her criminal detention, the defence indicated.
To confirm the defence version, the journalist’s advocate ordered an independent examination of the video recording in France. As a result of the examination, conducted by a qualified expert in the field of information security, and reverse engineering, it was found that “the materials submitted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the administrative case against Mziya Amaglobeli and the materials on the criminal case reflect the same events and actions of the same persons,” the “Batumelebi” portal reports.
Based on the expert’s conclusions, the defence of Mziya Amaglobeli has lodged a motion to cancel the court’s ruling on the violation in question.
“The hearing of the complaint was scheduled for May 29, but the author of the complaint presented additional evidence, requested new evidence, and asked to set a deadline for that. The court accepted those circumstances, attached some of the evidence we presented to the case and gave us time and the opportunity to present new evidence,” the “Batumelebi” portal has been informed by Giorgy Khimshiashvili, the advocate of Mziya Amaglobeli.
There have been no comments from the public prosecution regarding the defence’s claims about the falsification of the evidence in the Mziya Amaglobeli’s case.
This was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 30, 2025 at 02:22 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.