A court in Georgia has ordered five days in jail for a woman accused of vandalizing an icon of former Soviet dictator and criminal Joseph Stalin, whose act sparked massive protests in the capital Tbilisi last month, Reuters and Yahoo News reported.

Stalin’s paintingPhoto: dpa picture alliance / Alamy / Alamy / Profimedia

The Association of Young Georgian Lawyers, which defended a woman named Nata Peradze, could not be reached for confirmation, but local news agency InterPressNews reported that she had been arrested on vandalism charges.

In mid-January, protests broke out in Tbilisi, where thousands of people demanded severe punishment for Peradze, who was accused of pouring blue paint on the icon of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in the Georgian capital as a sign of protest against Russia.

One side of the icon depicts Stalin, an ardent atheist who brutally repressed believers during his time in power. The Soviet criminal is depicted during the Second World War by Saint Matrona of Moscow, who is revered by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Peradze posted a video of herself throwing paint at the icon and said she was protesting what she saw as the glorification of a tyrant.

“Stalin killed my whole family, he was terrifying and terrifying, he was not a hero,” she told Politico, adding that she had received death threats after posting the video on Facebook.

Stalin’s legacy stirs spirits in Georgia

Orthodox church activists, as well as believers and members of far-right organizations took to the streets demanding that Peradze be prosecuted and imprisoned for what they called blasphemy.

The Patriarchate of Georgia said the icon could depict “real stories related to the life of the saint, including rulers and common people, heretics and persecutors of the Christian faith.” “However,” the agency added, “this does not in any way mean that the image glorifies these figures or ascribes any dignity to them.”

Stalin has a complicated legacy in Georgia. Yosyp Dzhugashvili was born in 1878 in the city of Gori in the east of the country. A key figure in the Russian Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power, he led the USSR from 1924 until his death in 1953.

Millions died as Stalin imposed iron discipline and state terror to eliminate “enemies of the people” and build a communist state. Many people in this small country in the South Caucasus reject the legacy of the Soviet Union.

But some still regard Stalin with some pride as he rose from humble origins in Georgia to lead a superpower and defeat Nazi Germany.