Head of the Central Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Teimuraz Kupatadze rejected what he called a “huge amount of disinformation” in local media on excessive use of force and illegal actions from law enforcement officers against the foreign agent bill in Tbilisi.
According to Kupatadze, the police were applying “international practices of police measures” used in “leading European countries and in the U.S. on crowd management during gatherings and demonstrations and the use of special means established by law”.
He said employees of the Ministry added “special techniques, equipment and special means” were in “full compliance of international standards and most of them are purchased in different European states”.
"The recent gatherings and demonstrations in Georgia, in particular in Tbilisi, have repeatedly exceeded the limits defined by the legislation on gatherings and demonstrations. We witnessed storming of the building of the legislative body, an attempt to picket the Parliament, and multiple cases of violence against law enforcement officers," Kupatadze said.
The Head of Department said his European colleagues “would agree that proportional force and rather lenient actions” had been used by the domestic law enforcement against the rallies.
Kupatadze also warned participants and organisers of the rally that law enforcement would work to “foil violent actions of rally participants” while applying “strict measures” that were “similar to those practised in the U.S. and leading countries of Europe”.
