Ruling party Sec Gen claims organisers, protesters of Tbilisi rally “aggressively attacked” police “instead of holding peaceful protest”

Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday claimed organisers and protesters of a rally against the bill on transparency of foreign influence in capital Tbilisi on Tuesday had blocked the Parliament building and “aggressively attacked” police officers “instead of holding a peaceful protest”.

Commenting on the protest that saw 63 protesters detained and six police officers injured,, Kaladze said the “opportunity to express opinion in any form” was ensured to participants of the ongoing protests against the draft law, but added the expression “has to be done within the law”.

You know that freedom of speech and expression is protected at the highest level in this country. Any person, no matter how different their opinion, position, or political view, has the opportunity to express [their] opinion in any form, but it must be within the law”, he said.

“Yesterday, we all saw that the organisers and protesters of the rally, instead of [holding] a peaceful protest, were blocking the administrative building, [and] direct calls were made in this regard. Aggressive attacks were carried out on police officers - verbal and physical abuses, throwing of stones [and] bottles took place. Municipal property was also damaged”, the party official noted.

Aleksandre Darakhvelidze, the Deputy Interior Minister, on Wednesday said law enforcement officers had detained the protesters for “petty hooliganism and disobedience of legal requests of police” at the rally outside the Parliament on Rustaveli Avenue.

The protests are held against the bill that calls for registration of non-commercial legal entities and media outlets in the country as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they derive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad.