Extraordinary plenary session of Parliament delayed by opposition picket
Some media executives, civil society and opposition groups broke into the parliamentary session hall, occupied the speaker's seat, displayed Georgian and EU flags and did not allow the ruling party to start the session. Photo: IPN.
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An extraordinary sitting of the Parliament of Georgia scheduled for this morning has not been held so far as some media executives, civil society and opposition groups broke into the parliamentary session hall, occupied the speaker's seat, displayed Georgian and EU flags and did not allow the ruling party to start the session.
The controversy erupted after the deadline set by the media representatives and civil society demanding the resignation of the government and the Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili expired at 12:00 earlier today and decided to enter the parliament building to ‘pose some questions and share their opinions with the ruling party members'.
Media executives and journalists were not allowed into the parliament building as they did not have entry passes. Some opposition members allowed entry pass on media representatives and even came out of the building to help them enter the parliament but guards did not allow neither journalists nor the opposition members to get into the building.
After this some media executives, including director of TV Pirveli Vato Tsereteli, civil society and opposition broke into the parliamentary session hall.
There was verbal and in some cases physical confrontation in the session hall.
The Georgian ruling party has accused the opposition of ‘trading by tragedy’ following the death of the TV Pirveli cameraman Lekso Lashkarava, who was found dead yesterday after being attacked by right-wing counter protesters of the Tbilisi Pride march on July 5. The head of the ruling party Irakli Kobakhidze said earlier today that the organisers of yesterday's rally, protesting the death of TV Pirveli cameraman Lekso Lashkarava, are the leaders of radical, anti-Christian groups, ‘who decided to score points on the death of the colleague.’
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili responded to yesterday's rally of journalists, civil activists and politicians who gathered in front of the parliament building to pay tribute to TV Pirveli cameraman Lekso Lashkarava and demand Garibashvili’s resignation. Garibashvili said that 'they tried to use this tragedy to achieve their own political goals'.
Police have detained one more individual who attacked TV Pirveli journalists in the office of the Shame Movement in Tbilisi on July 5 during the counter-rally against the Tbilisi Pride march. The Ministry of Internal Affair reports that in total 20 people have been arrested for verbally and physically assaulting media representatives on July 5 of which five are detained for attacking the TV Pirveli crew.
Right-wing businessman Levan Vasadze, who founded political movement Unity, Essence, Hope earlier in May, has blamed US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan for the death of TV Pirveli cameraman Lekso Lashkarava, who had been previously beaten up by the right-wing counter protesters of the Tbilisi Pride march.
An extraordinary session of the Parliament of Georgia scheduled for this morning started three hours late after members of the opposition, several media executives and civil society broke into the parliament hall, occupied the speaker’s seat and didn’t allow the ruling party to start the session.