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Protests continue in Georgia against the law on "foreign agents"

2024-05-15 10:54:58, Kosova & Bota CNA

Protests continue in Georgia against the law on "foreign agents"

Thousands of Georgians have continued their protest in Tbilisi in the early hours of May 15 against the controversial law on "foreign agents", which was passed in Parliament a day earlier.

The law, which was pushed forward by the ruling Georgian Dream party, has fueled protests for weeks. The law has also faced criticism from the United States and the European Union.

President Salome Zurabishvili, who has supported the peaceful protests, has vowed to veto the law. She has ten days to exercise her veto right.

However, Georgian Dream and its partners in Parliament have enough votes to override the president's veto.

On May 15, Zurabishvili will hold a press conference together with the foreign ministers of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Iceland who are visiting Tbilisi.

On the evening of May 14, protesters marched from the Parliament building for 2 kilometers to Heroes' Square, located in the center of the Georgian capital, where police violently arrested at least ten people, said Radio Free Europe journalists who closely followed the protest. .

On May 14, in the third and final reading, lawmakers voted 84 to 30 against the law introduced by the Georgian Dream party, which has used security forces to violently suppress protests that have taken place in recent weeks. The police used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets against the protesters.

After the legislation was passed, angry protesters gathered outside Parliament broke metal barriers near the building and police clashed with them. At least 13 people were arrested, some of whom were arrested violently.

Also, inside the Parliament, before the legislation was put to the vote, there was a fight between the Georgian Dream legislators and the opposition ones.

The law passed by the Georgian Parliament has been condemned by the US, the EU and human rights groups, who have argued that it is similar to the law that Russian President Vladimir Putin uses to suppress dissent and independent institutions.

US Assistant Secretary of State James O'Brien, who is in Tbilisi, said Washington's relations with Georgia will be jeopardized and US aid to the country will be reviewed when the legislation is officially signed into law.

"This is a dark day for Georgian democracy," a group of 11 US senators said in a statement issued after the vote.

United Nations representatives in Tbilisi said the law's passage "threatens freedom of expression" and called on authorities to investigate violence against protesters.

The mass rallies against the law are the largest organized protests in Georgia since the country declared independence in 1991.

According to the law, already approved in Parliament, media, non-governmental organizations and other non-profit organizations must be registered as organizations "following the interests of a foreign power" if they receive more than 20 percent of their funds from abroad. REL





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