Georgia’s human rights ombudsman, Levan Ioselian, has since issued a statement The police response was condemned as “contrary to the standard of necessary and proportionate intervention”. The Public Protector called for an investigation into the use of “disproportionate force” and the apparent targeting of journalists covering the events.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Tbilisi, Georgian Dream politician Kakha Kaladze, He blamed the protesters for blocking the entrances to Parliament and the people present there. “The radicals do this, and then they sometimes quietly run away and release the youth to the police,” he alleged, providing no evidence for his claims.
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, Condemnation “Violence against protesters in Georgia who were demonstrating peacefully against the law on foreign influence.” He urged the ruling Georgian Dream party to ensure that the right to peaceful assembly is respected and stressed that “the use of force to suppress it is unacceptable.”
Georgia was granted EU candidate status by the European Commission in December, despite warnings that it was at risk of backsliding on key human rights issues and had not implemented reforms set by Brussels. The bloc’s head of expansion, Gert Jan Koopman, arrived in Tbilisi on Wednesday morning as part of a scheduled visit, MEPs are urging them To announce the withdrawal of the candidate status of the South Caucasus nation.
The foreign agents bill, initially proposed last year, was shelved by the government after mass protests and international outcry, with Brussels saying the rules would be contrary to European values.
However, at a rally on Monday night, the ruling party doubled down on its plans, which it said were necessary to protect the country from foreign influence and “LGBT propaganda.” These measures would require non-governmental organizations and media outlets that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as agents of foreign influence, which critics say would suppress civil society. Mirrors the law used by neighboring Russia.