Police break up overnight Tbilisi protest rally against Govt’s EU integration suspension following “multiple warnings”

The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs on Saturday said the police, following “multiple warnings to demonstrators to express protest in a peaceful manner”, had taken legal measures, including “the use of special means” permitted by the law, to disperse the overnight rally against the Government’s decision to delay European Union accession negotiations until 2028.

The Ministry noted despite participants “having an opportunity to express their protest and continue their demonstration peacefully, as they had done in the previous two days” and “not to go beyond the law”, the actions of some of the protesters “turned violent”.

It pointed out the demonstrators had launched pyrotechnics at the Parliament building, as well as the law enforcement officers stationed nearby, verbally abused the police officers, and had thrown stones and other heavy objects in their direction.

The body added, as a result of investigative actions, its Central Criminal Police Department had arrested two individuals on charges of participating in group violent actions during the protests on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi.