Police arrest 13 for disobedience, petty hooliganism during transparency bill protests

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia on Tuesday said it had arrested 13 individuals during public protests over the controversial domestic bill on transparency of foreign influence outside the Parliament in the country’s capital Tbilisi.

The Ministry noted the arrests had been made for “disobedience to legal requests of the police and petty hooliganism” during protests on Tuesday.

The body said law enforcement officers had been mobilised outside the country’s Parliament to “protect public order and ensure the safety of each citizen” as the legislative body on Tuesday had adopted in the final hearing the draft law.

It added the Ministry had made a decision to clear the entrances of the Parliament to “ensure free movement of MPs” and give protesters the “opportunity to express their protest in a peaceful environment” as they began assembling near the building of the legislative body.

Participants of the rally started to damage the protective steel barriers installed at the entrance of the legislative body [...] on purpose and, as a result, managed to break into the territory of the Parliament. They also added various messages to walls of the Parliament building using paint”, the release said.

It also said the protests had “completely exceeded the limits defined by the law on assembly and demonstration and took on a violent character”, adding the protesters had also placed “various steel constructions” on a road.

Despite multiple calls made by the police and numerous cautionary statements published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to hold the rally peacefully, participants of the rally ignored the legal calls and verbally confronted the law enforcement officers, throwing various blunt objects and paint in the direction of the police”, the body added.

It said law enforcement had “administered proportional force and special means defined by law” to prevent an “unauthorised breaking into the Parliament building” and “restore public order”.

It called on organisers and participants of the rallies to follow “legal requests of law enforcement officers”, and added it would study all “illegal facts that occurred during the rally”, with “each violation [to] be followed by a strict legal response”.