Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have issued a new round of sanctions targeting Georgian judiciary officials involved in what the Baltic states say was the illegal detention of independent journalist Mzia Amaglobeli.
Amaglobeli is seen by many as a symbol of a fight for freedom after she went on a 38-day hunger strike while under arrest to protest what critics say are authoritarian practices by the ruling Georgian Dream party.
The journalist, who co-founded influential news websites Batumelebi and Netgazeti, has ended her strike but remains in a penitentiary facility in Georgia.
“The newly blacklisted officials include seven judges of the Constitutional Court of Georgia, as well as a large number of Georgian judges, prosecutors and police officers, including those who testified falsely against journalist Mzia Amaglobeli and contributed to her illegal detention,” the Lithuanian foreign ministry said in a statement.
The sanctioned individuals are indefinitely barred from entering the three Baltic countries.
Lithuania has put 74 names on its blacklist, Estonia has 54 and Latvia has 16.
Since Georgian Dream won another term in power in the October elections that were seen by many Western nations as undemocratic, the overwhelmingly pro-European Georgian population has witnessed its government drifting toward Russia.
The new rulers have halted the Black Sea nation’s EU accession process and brutally cracked down on mass protests that ensued.
Estonia’s foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, said the country’s blacklist “includes judges, prosecutors, police officials and police commissioners, platform creators and members of parliament who are responsible for the prosecution of protesters by the judicial system and judiciary and law enforcement agencies.”
He added: “The listed Georgian individuals have either taken part in violence or threatened it.”
The Lithuanian foreign ministry said in a statement that the three Baltic states have “expressed their strong support to the people of Georgia, who have been protesting for more than 100 days against the systemic actions of the ruling Georgian Dream party, which grossly violate the country’s Constitution, civil and political rights, and international obligations.”
