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Mzia Amaglobeli was detained twice on 11 January in highly contentious circumstances, during a protest against the Georgian Dream government in the Black Sea port of Batumi.

A video promoted repeatedly on state media shows her lightly slapping the Batumi police chief on the cheek.

Photos of the journalist alongside calls for her release adorn the main protest sites in Tbilisi as well as her home city of Batumi.

Her family, friends and colleagues describe her as a peaceful, calm and hard-working person who founded Batumi news website Batumelebi with her business partner Eter Turadze in 2001.

"Mzia is well known in journalistic circles, but she was not a public person," says civil rights activist Malkaz Chkadua, who has taken part in the nightly protests in Batumi.