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Six people detained during protests against foreign agents bill in Georgia

Since April 15, opposition and civil activists have been holding rallies in Tbilisi against the adoption of the law on foreign agents

TBILISI, May 9. /TASS/. Georgian police detained six people on charges of staging riots during protests in Tbilisi against the bill on foreign agents, Tbilisi Police Department Chief Sulkhan Tamazashvili told a briefing on Thursday.

"As a result of investigative measures, the Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor’s Office have detained six people on charges of assaults on a policeman and damaging a personal belonging," he said.

Since April 15, opposition and civil activists have been holding rallies in Tbilisi against the adoption of the law on foreign agents. Several times demonstrations turned into clashes with police. Riot control forces used pepper gas and water cannon to disperse protesters near the parliament building. During one of the rallies, when the protesters tried to force open the parliament’s gate, according to journalists' testimonies, riot police fired rubber bullets. The Interior Ministry denied this.

On May 1, the Georgian parliament after the second reading supported the bill On the Transparency of Foreign Influence, which President Salome Zourabichvili, the opposition and Western diplomats oppose as an obstacle to the country’s integration into the European Union.

The US Department of State said that the purpose of the bill was to undermine the country's active civil society. The leaders of the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party argue that the law only serves the purpose of transparency of foreign funding of the non-governmental sector and media.

The ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party announced in early April that it had decided to reintroduce the bill to parliament. This happened a year after a similar initiative triggered mass protests, forcing the authorities to abandon the bill. Its text remains identical to last year’s, except for the term "agent of foreign influence." Instead, the term "organization promoting the interests of a foreign power" is used.

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