The crackdown in Tbilisi comes after lawmakers debated a controversial bill on foreign financing.
Georgian police used tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters as thousands of people gathered outside parliament in Tbilisi for a third week to oppose a controversial “foreign influence” bill.
Masked riot police violently suppressed Tuesday’s demonstration, beating and arresting many people protesting the bill, which Brussels denounced as undermining Georgia’s aspirations to join the European Union.
Lawmakers previously debated the controversial legislation, which would require organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents.”
The parliamentary session ended without a vote and the debate resumed on Wednesday.
The proposed legislation has deepened divisions between the ruling Georgian Dream party and the protest movement backed by opposition groups, civil society, celebrities and Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili.
Georgian Dream holds a commanding majority in the legislature, allowing it to pass laws and vote against a presidential veto without needing the support of any opposition lawmakers.
Critics have labeled the bill “Russian law,” comparing it to Moscow’s “foreign agents” legislation, which has been used to suppress dissent in the country.
Russia is disliked by many Georgians for its support of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Georgia lost a brief war with Russia in 2008.
The United States, the United Kingdom and the EU, which granted Georgia candidate status in December, have criticized the project. European Council President Charles Michel said the bill is “not consistent” with Georgia’s bid for EU membership and “will move Georgia further away from the EU, not closer.”
Tina Khidasheli, who served as Georgian defense minister in a government led by Georgian Dream in 2015-2016, took part in Tuesday’s protest against her former government colleagues and said she hoped the protesters would eventually win.
“The government is just prolonging the inevitable. We may have serious problems, but at the end of the day, the people will go home with victory,” Khidasheli told Reuters news agency.
On Monday, a government-organized rally in support of the bill was attended by tens of thousands of people, many of whom had been bused in from provincial cities by the governing party.
Last month, punches were thrown in the halls of parliament in Tblisi during discussions over the controversial new law.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
