Despite threats of punishment from Georgian Prime Minister Iraqi Kobachidze, thousands of people took to the streets in Georgia for the sixth consecutive evening to protest against the pro-Russia government’s postponement of EU accession negotiations. As AFP journalists reported, protesters gathered in front of Parliament in the capital Tbilisi on Tuesday evening and waved Georgian and EU flags. Georgian human rights ombudsman Levan Ioseliani accused the police of torturing protesters.
Some protesters threw fireworks towards the building. The police used a loudspeaker to invite protesters to disperse the demonstration. He then used water cannons and tear gas again, among other things to prevent protesters from climbing over the walls of the Parliament building. Independant Georgian television channels reported arrests.
The pro-European president Salome Zurabishvili called the police action on the online service X “disproportionate”. She criticized “massive arrests and inadequate treatment”.
According to the Interior Ministry, a total of 293 people have been arrested since the start of the latest wave of protests. 143 were injured.
Human rights ombudsman Ioseliani said the majority of injuries suffered by protest participants “are concentrated on the face, eyes and head.” The location, nature and severity of the injuries “strongly suggest that the police are using force against citizens as a punitive measure”, which “constitutes an act of torture”, he added.
The Georgian Interior minister accused the protesters of throwing “various types of blunt objects, fireworks and flammable objects” at the police.
Prime Minister Kobachidze had previously accused opposition groups of deliberately using violence during massive anti-government protests. He also threatened to punish political opponents on Tuesday. Opposition politicians have “staged violence in recent days”,he told a news conference. Even non-governmental organizations could not escape the responsibility established by law.
Massive protests in the Caucasus country began thursday evening. They are in particular against the postponement of EU accession negotiations until 2028, announced by Kobachidze.
Georgia has been an official candidate for EU membership since December 2023. As then, though, the pro-Moscow government has passed several laws that are of great concern to Brussels, including a Russian-style law against “foreign influence”. The EU then froze the accession process with Georgia at the end of june. The opposition accuses the government of wanting to distance Georgia from the EU and bring the former Soviet republic closer to Russia.
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