Police arrest one for assaulting law enforcement officers during transparency bill protests
The crime is punishable up to seven years imprisonment. Photo: Ministry of Internal Affairs
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The Georgian Interior Ministry on Wednesday said law enforcement officers had arrested one individual for an assault on a police officer during a public protest against the controversial domestic law on transparency of foreign influence in the country’s capital Tbilisi.
The Ministry said the attack had left the officer with a face injury on Monday near the Parliament building.
The body added the arrested individual had a criminal record for violence, causing injury and disobedience to legal requests of a police officer.
The protests are being held against the legislative piece which calls for the 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.
It requires groups “considered to be an organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power” to be registered in the public registry with the status and publicise their received funding.
The draft law was adopted after 84 MPs voted for it in the 150-member lawmaking body on Tuesday, with 30 voting against.
The crime is punishable up to seven years imprisonment.
The Georgian Interior Ministry on Tuesday called on “each participant” of the manifestation against the controversial domestic bill on transparency of foreign influence in the country’s capital Tbilisi to “express protest in peaceful forms”.
The Georgian Public Defender’s Office on Tuesday called on the country’s Special Investigation Service to conduct an “effective investigation in the shortest possible time” to “identify all violent law enforcement officers” during protests against a controversial domestic bill on transparency of foreign influence in Tbilisi.
The Georgian State Security Service on Wednesday claimed unspecified groups involving a “specific part” of Georgian volunteers fighting in Ukraine were “trying to organise provocations” at ongoing protest rallies against the Bill on transparency of foreign influence in Tbilisi.
The Georgian Parliament on Tuesday adopted in the final hearing the bill on transparency of foreign influence, reintroduced by the ruling Georgian Dream party on the backdrop of ongoing public protests.