An activist in Georgia has been sentenced to five days of administrative detention by a court for defacing an icon featuring Georgian-born Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in a cathedral in Tbilisi. Nata Peradze, who is accused of splashing paint on the icon, was detained on charges of petty hooliganism, as confirmed by the Young Lawyers Association, which represented her in court.

The icon, which portrays a Russian Orthodox "saint Matrona of Moscow", blessing Stalin, caused outrage when it was recently discovered in the country’s primary place of worship, Holy Trinity Cathedral, leading civil society organizations to demand its removal. In mid-January, Peradze posted a brief video on Facebook showing the icon covered in paint. Far-right groups began calling for her punishment and sending her death threats, even besieging her apartment and attempting to storm the building.

Peradze stated that displaying Stalin in a church is "a weapon of influence."

"They can’t scare me, the fight continues and I will expose illegality from inside the prison," Peradze said. On January 18, a few days after it was defaced, the Georgian Church announced that it had removed the painting to be "amended".