On February 21, 2026, during a debate broadcast on the pro-government TV company “Imedi,” Shalva Papuashvili made a manipulative statement regarding the sentence of Mzia Amaghlobeli. He compared the journalist’s verdict to the sentence of a person convicted for slapping French President Emmanuel Macron.

“In France, a person attacked Macron do you know how much he was sentenced to? 18 months,” Shalva Papuashvili stated.

However, according to information published by “Netgazeti,” in reality the French man who slapped the president spent only 4 months in prison and the remaining term was suspended, whereas Mzia Amaghlobeli was sentenced to two years in prison. The journalist has already been in prison for more than one year.