Zugdidi Court Sentences Activist to 5 Days in Prison for Facebook Comment

Magdalina Todua, an employee of the City Hall's Public Relations Service, sued the activist for calling her “brainless" and "fool" in Megrelian language in a Facebook comment.

According to Rostevan Zarandia, his comment on the City Hall's Facebook page followed the dispersal of a rally in Zugdidi on April 9.

"All of this [the dispersal] was organized so that these people, carefully gathered using tried-and-tested techniques in NNLEs [Non-entrepreneurial Non-commercial Legal Entity], would go to the memorial and pose with sad faces, so that Magdalina and PR employes like her could then wave those photos around, showing what patriots their bosses are. In haste, they failed to conceal the crime with photos, because the flags (one of them being the U.S. flag), which had been discarded after they trampled us, appeared in the photo lying on a bush in the background of the memorial.

We, citizens, outraged by the injustice, wrote comments on these posts, and those reality falsifiers were deleting them. I’ve written multiple comments. 

“Magda, to post those photos, you had us beaten, you fool! And now you are deleting our comments. How do you teach teenagers what civil society is like? You are a teacher who falsifies – you falsify reality, you falsify elections. You are a criminal, Magdalina Todua' - she says she felt sick because of my comments like this.

I am convinced that this is not happening on her initiative and she is fulfilling orders from her bosses," Rostevan Zarandia wrote on Facebook before today's court session.

Rostevan Zarandia and Magdalina Todua have known each other for more than ten years. According to activist Mariam Sitchinava, a motion was filed during the process to question Todua to confirm that they are friends and have often used similar words towards each other. The judge did not grant the motion.

Sitchinava stated that they also requested a Megrelian language interpreter who would explain the context of the words "tvenge" [fool] and "pocho" [brainless]. The judge did not grant this motion either, because he already knew the meaning of the words.

Recently, the court has found dozens of individuals critical of Georgian Dream guilty of administrative offenses for opinions expressed on Facebook. These include journalists and politicians.

In February, Article 17316 was added to the Code of Administrative Offenses, making it punishable to verbally insult, swear at, or engage in other insulting actions towards a state-political official, state employee, or public servant while performing their official duties or in connection with their official duties or activities. This article provides for a fine of GEL 1500 to 4000 or administrative imprisonment for up to 45 days as a sanction. In case of a repeated offense, the fine increases from GEL 2500 to 6000, and the prison term increases to up to 60 days.