At trial of Amaglobeli’s case, Batumi police head tells about pain from received slap

Today, the court that considers the case of the journalist Mziya Amaglobeli has questioned Irakli Dgebuadze, the head of the Batumi police division of Adjara, whom Mziya had slapped after being detained at a protest. Dgebuadze told the court how he experienced the pain of the journalist's slap.

On May 8, at a court session, the above Irakli Dgebuadze was questioned. He reiterated that he had experienced pain as a result of the slap received from Mziya Amaglobeli.

She hit me once in the face and quite hard. I experienced pain.

"She hit me once in the face and quite hard. She punched me in the right side of the face. When you get hit in the face, you get hit. If someone could give me a synonym for what a person experiences when he is punched in the face ... I felt pain. Several of my colleagues commented, ‘Look how red you are, your ear is red, your cheek is red.’ Naturally, I also wondered what was wrong with my face. When I went up to my office, I saw a mirror, looked into it and saw redness," the “Pirveli” TV Company quotes Irakli Dgebuadze as testifying to the court.

He also told the court that before Mziya’s arrest, he had no idea about her profession and felt no aggression towards her.

I don’t think that journalism gives anyone the right to attack a policeman.

"I follow the phrases and texts in the media that I had some kind of aggression towards Ms Mziya, either personally or because she was engaged in journalistic activities. I have absolutely friendly and very good relations with all the journalists working in this city. In general, I respect and am friends with this profession. I want to emphasize that before Mziya Amaglobeli was arrested, I had no idea what her profession was. However, even if I had known at the time of her actions that she was a journalist, my colleagues would probably have acted the same way as they did. I don’t think that journalism gives anyone the right to attack a policeman and to slap him,” Mr Dgebuadze has stated.

“Neither Irakli Dgebuadze nor any of the policemen present there had any negative feelings towards Mziya Amaglobeli personally or towards her profession either before or at the time she committed this act,” Irakli Dgebuadze has emphasized.

The questioning of Irakli Dgebuadze was held amid the noise and shouts of Mziya Amaglobeli’s relatives and friends present in the courtroom. They shouted: “Dgebuadze, you are a false witness”, “Freedom for Mziya Amaglobeli” and “Freedom for the regime prisoners”. Actor Malkhaz Iremadze, who was in the courtroom, addressed Mziya Amaglobeli, telling her that she was “a cool girl, and Georgia is with her.” For this, Judge Nino Nameshvili removed the actor from the courtroom, according to another report by the “Pirveli” TV from the trial of the journalist.

Also on May 8, Mziya Amaglobeli filed a lawsuit demanding a refutation of the statements made by government officials about her.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 8, 2025 at 08:35 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.