The prosecutor's office is demanding a harsher sentence for Mzia Amaglobeli.

At the appeal hearing against the sentence of Mzia Amaglobeli, founder of the publications "Batumelebi" and "Netgazeti," the state prosecutor demanded a harsher sentence for the journalist, qualifying her actions under the original charge.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," at the end of October, the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly published a resolution demanding the release of convicted journalist Mzia Amaglobeli. A week earlier, Mzia Amaglobeli received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the European Union's highest human rights award.

The Kutaisi Court of Appeal held its second hearing today on Mzia Amaglobeli's appeal against the sentence, with a representative of the prosecutor's office delivering the closing argument. The prosecution insists that the harsher section of Article 353 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which carries a sentence of four to seven years in prison, be applied to Amaglobeli, Batumelebi reports.

"I believe a guilty verdict should be rendered," Prosecutor Tornike Gogeshvili stated at today's hearing.

Amaglobeli's defense, in turn, is demanding that the Batumi City Court's verdict be overturned, that the journalist be declared not guilty, and that she be released. The lawyers are also demanding that Mzia Amaglobeli be granted disability status due to her vision problems. The defense previously appealed to the Georgian Minister of Health and the administration of the penitentiary where the journalist is being held, asking them to organize the necessary procedures. According to Amaglobeli's lawyer, her vision continues to deteriorate.

Prosecutor Shota Chkhaidze requested that the forensic examination of Amaglobeli's cell phone be included in the case file. Lawyer Maia Mtsariashvili noted that she stated that no materials of interest to the investigation were found on the journalist's phone—in particular, "no traces of Deep State were found." Detective Vladimir Chitaya insisted on the examination, claiming that Mzia Amaglobeli had planned the attack on the police officer in advance, along with "unidentified individuals" with whom she communicated over the phone. The prosecutor's office later excluded Chitaya from the list of witnesses in the case, Publika reports.

At the previous hearing on November 11, Kutaisi Court of Appeals Judge Nikoloz Margvelashvili allowed Mzia Amaglobeli to leave the glass-enclosed courtroom and sit next to her lawyers, the first time this has been done since the journalist's detention. Today, the same judge also forbade her from leaving the glass-enclosed courtroom. Furthermore, members of the public were not allowed into the hearing – on November 11, Margvelashvili promised that the next hearing would take place in the large courtroom, but today it was held in the small courtroom again.

Mzia Amaglobeli's lawyer, Maia Mtsariashvili, noted that this "once again demonstrates the diagnosis of Georgian justice." According to her, after the first hearing on November 11, the judge was forbidden "from being so kind and generous." "The judge tried to show a little humanity in the previous trial and was immediately told, 'Don't you dare!' Imagine what the court does in more important matters," Mtsariashvili told reporters after the hearing.

The next, final hearing in the Amaglobeli appeal is scheduled for November 18.