TBILISI: The European Union (EU) led condemnation against Georgia on Wednesday after police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at thousands of protesters demonstrating against a controversial “foreign influence” bill.
The clashes were the most violent yet in three weeks of protests against the planned legislation — which critics say is modelled on Russian law used to stifle dissent and the European Union says undermines Georgian ambitions to join the EU, AFP reported.
Several people, including opposition politicians, reported being tortured by riot police at the latest rally which went into the early hours of Wednesday. The interior ministry said 63 protesters were arrested.
Test of Democracy in Georgia
The turmoil came ahead of parliamentary polls in October, seen as a test of democracy in the country, three decades after it gained freedom with the fall of the Soviet Union.
Josep Borrell, EU foreign policy chief, said that he strongly condemned the violence against demonstrators in Georgia who were peacefully protesting against the bill on foreign influence.
He wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Georgia was an EU candidate country. He urged authorities to ensure the right to peaceful assembly. The use of force to suppress it was unacceptable.
Many journalists were attacked, including an AFP photographer, wearing clear press identification, who was beaten with a rubber baton.
Lawmaker Levan Khabeishvili, chairman of the main opposition United National Movement of imprisoned ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, was badly beaten and had to seek medical help.
He appeared in parliament on Wednesday with a swollen face and a bandage across his hand and nose.
TV stations aired a video showing his face disfigured with missing teeth.
Sophia Japaridze, another Saakashvili ally, said she was “cruelly beaten by police.”
President Salome Zurabishvili — who is at loggerheads with the ruling party — also slammed the crackdown and urged police to stop “the use of disproportionate force, the violence against barehanded youth.”
The country’s rights ombudsman called for a probe into the use of “disproportionate force” against demonstrators and journalists.
