Musician Maia Darsmelidze wrote on social media that a court hearing had been scheduled in connection with the alleged insult of Nino Jgharkava, a supporter of “Georgian Dream.” According to Darsmelidze, she was notified about the hearing by the Division for Monitoring Public Communication. “Hurray, I cut the ribbon. The scrolling department contacted me. Jgharka filed a complaint against me and they say they have two screenshots,” the musician wrote.
Nino Jgharkava herself stated that she had not formally filed a complaint against Maia Darsmelidze. “I have just received a call from TV Pirveli asking whether I had sued Maia Darsmelidze over a post. The new division has started working and Ms. Darsmelidze has been summoned to court. I did not go anywhere officially and did not write a complaint. I tagged the Ministry of Internal Affairs here, and the response apparently followed promptly,” Jgharkava wrote.
The court hearing in this case is scheduled for 10 July. According to publicly available information, this is the first case pursued by the new division in relation to a comment made in the public space. The new division within the Ministry of Internal Affairs became operational on 1 June. According to the Ministry, the division’s main task is to identify statements disseminated in the public space that are degrading to human dignity or insulting and that may contain elements of an administrative offence.
