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TV Pirveli cameraman injured during rally near parliament building in Tbilisi

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry reported that three policemen were injured during the clashes, adding that the rally has exceeded the scope of the law on public gatherings

TBILISI, November 29. /TASS/. Cameraman of Georgia’s TV Pirveli Niko Kokaya was injured during a clash between the protesters and policemen near the Georgian Parliament building in Tbilisi.

The TV channel showed the injured camera man during the live report. According to preliminary information, he sustained a head trauma and inhaled tear gas. The medics provide him with first aid. The TV channel’s management blamed Georgian Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri for the incident.

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry reported that three policemen were injured during the clashes, adding that the rally has exceeded the scope of the law on public gatherings.

"The rally on the territory adjacent to the parliament has exceeded the limits set by the law on gatherings and demonstrations. Despite the repeated warning from the policemen present on site, the participants engage in physical standoff and inflict verbal insults on the policemen; they also throw various items, which got three policemen injured; two of them were hospitalized," the ministry said, underscoring that the police had to use means of riot control.

The snap rally in Tbilisi sparked on Thursday after Prime Minister Irakly Kobakhidze announced that the Georgian Dream party decided not to include the accession to the EU on agenda until 2028 and to refuse all budgetary grants from the European Union. According to the Prime Minister, this was caused by constant blackmail from the EU in regards to issue of the beginning of the dialogue, its demand to cancel a number of adopted laws and its calls to impose sanctions against Georgian authorities.