A Georgian court has sentenced journalist and media founder Mzia Amaghlobeli to two years in prison for slapping a police chief.   

Amaghlobeli, founder of the independent news sites Batumelebi and Netgazeti, said that the police chief in the Georgian resort town of Batumi, Irakli Dgebuadze, had verbally assaulted her. While in custody, she said later, she was verbally abused and spat at by police.

Originally Amaghlobeli was charged with “assaulting a police officer,” which carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison, but the charge was downgraded at the last minute on Wednesday to “resisting, threatening, or using violence against a protector of public order.”

Opposition politicians and activists say the sentence is unfair and is politically motivated — part of an escalating government crackdown on dissent. 

“The regime is paralyzed — too cowardly to free Mzia Amaghlobeli, too weak to convict her,” former President Salome Zourabichvili wrote on X. “This isn’t justice. It’s a dying authoritarian system. And we won’t stop!”

The diplomatic missions of 23 countries and the European Union have denounced the sentence and called for Amaghlobeli’s release. Amnesty International said the trial was “riddled with procedural irregularities and bias.” 

Since a parliamentary election last October, the ruling Georgian Dream party has cracked down on dissent, sentencing opposition leaders to jail time and assaulting and fining anti-government protesters. Last week a Georgian court authorized the forced transfer of detained activist Nino Datashvili to a psychiatric facility. 

Though Baltic countries have individually sanctioned the officials responsible for the crackdown, the European Union as a whole has been unable to impose sanctions due to opposition from Hungary and Slovakia. 

The European Commission has threatened to take away Georgia’s visa-free travel to Europe — which would not require unanimity — if the government does not reverse its democratic backsliding by September.

Georgian Dream and the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.