From my jail mobile in Georgia, I implore Europe to not abandon us to Russia | Mzia Amaglobeli via NewsFlicks

My mobile is painted inexperienced, the similar color we as soon as used within the newsroom. Two benches and a desk are bolted to the ground. Not anything strikes. The mattress is slim, however I haven’t fallen out but. When I used to be unfastened, however already anticipating arrest, I used to funny story that jail would give me the time I at all times lacked – in spite of everything, I may just learn. However right here in Rustavi Girls’s Colony No 5, I’ve nearly misplaced my eyesight. So now I write in encroaching darkness, in regards to the darkness this is falling throughout my nation, Georgia.

The one window in my mobile sits prime up close to the ceiling. On my fiftieth birthday, my pals and associates assembled on a hill reverse the jail to carry up posters and balloons. I climbed directly to a chair however couldn’t slightly see. I watched their greetings at the information later.

For the previous 8 months, this has been my existence beneath Georgia’s repressive regime: person who seeks to silence reporters, erase dissent and smash our spirit. On 12 January 2025, I used to be arrested on fees of “attacking a police officer” all over an illustration. I spent nearly seven months in pretrial detention whilst the case was once heard. On 6 August, the pass judgement on reclassified the rate, and I used to be in the long run convicted of the lesser offence of resisting an officer, receiving a two-year jail sentence. This provides me the doubtful honour of being the primary feminine journalist imprisoned in Georgia for politically motivated causes for the reason that nation’s independence in 1991. I used to be introduced a plea deal – an act of contrition in trade for a lighter sentence – however I refused. To reconcile with injustice is to be buried alive.

I needed to to find new tactics to protest towards the injustice this regime has subjected me to. I take into accout reducing off my braid in a while after I used to be imprisoned. They lent me scissors for 2 mins, status proper on the door of the mobile, gazing how I used them. Again then, they introduced me many stuff, however I took simplest 10 litres of water. I used to be on a starvation strike for the primary 38 days. I’m now scripting this letter to ship to the places of work of Batumelebi, the opening I co-founded, the place my pals and associates proceed the battle in my absence.

I’ve moments of weak point. Now and again my eyes fill with tears. However I take a look at to not keep in that state for lengthy. In actual fact, I don’t have any different selection: this illegitimate govt is making an attempt to abolish journalism, the career to which I’ve faithful 25 years of my existence. My colleagues are in mortal risk merely for doing their process. For me to stick silent now can be to betray them, myself and about 60 different political prisoners in Georgia nowadays. Out of doors those jail partitions, folks have taken to the streets for 9 months directly. Conserving EU flags aloft, they have got been soaking wet via water cannon, suffocated via teargas and brutalised via insurrection police. But they decline to give up. Their decision is our hope.

We now have confronted stark existential possible choices earlier than. In 1921, Georgia’s short-lived democratic republic was once swallowed via Russia, with the assistance of Georgian Bolsheviks. Again then, the early life additionally fought valiantly within the streets, simplest to vanish for the following 70 years beneath the shadow of Soviet domination. Now historical past threatens to copy itself, with Russia pulling us again into its orbit, aided via collaborators inside of our personal govt. The regime dances to the track of the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia and continues to advance its pursuits. The regime has deserted our Eu trail and followed the gear of Russian rule: propaganda, repression, corruption and concern.

However Georgia isn’t Russia, and Georgians have constantly demonstrated resilience. Regardless of being invaded via Russia in 2008, and the continuing arrests and kidnappings of our electorate within the Russian-occupied territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, we nonetheless make a selection Europe. The early life of Georgia are main this battle towards exhaustion, towards melancholy and towards the chilly calculation of those that would promote our freedom.

What can also be performed? Make stronger Georgia’s beleaguered civil society and our unbiased media. Don’t punish bizarre electorate via revoking visa-free commute. Goal the ones in reality accountable: Georgian Dream birthday celebration officers and their trade networks. Talk out for the folk within the streets, for the reporters in the back of bars, for a society that refuses to bend.

Providing your fortify to Georgia is not just an act of cohesion – it’s the pragmatic selection. Some other repressive regime within the neighbourhood would endanger Europe’s personal safety. To desert Georgia now can be to praise Russia’s aggression.

Georgia’s nationwide motto is “energy is in team spirit”. For me, being a part of the EU manner sharing in and contributing to that energy. We belong now not within the Russian global of dictatorship and concern, however within the Eu circle of relatives of unfastened countries. From my mobile, I will see extra obviously than ever that Europe isn’t just about geography, it’s about values: dignity, justice, equality and cohesion. And in Georgia, we’re preventing for the ones values with the whole lot we have now – with our pens, our voices and our our bodies at the streets.

Our battle is a part of Europe’s battle, as Ukraine’s battle is a part of Europe’s battle. And I ask you, our Eu pals: don’t let pass of our hand. In combination, we will defeat the darkness and make sure that freedom prevails. As a result of freedom, in reality, is extra treasured than existence.