Police in Georgia on Saturday fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse pro-EU protesters rallying for a 9th consecutive day against the Georgian government's decision to shelve talks on joining the EU.
Riot police have forced protesters back from the parliament building in Tbilisi soon after midnight, and also forced them away from Rustaveli Avenue.
Another protest rally began near the parliament building on Friday. The protest was mostly peaceful; however, a few incidents occurred, with demonstrators firing fireworks at police. According to the Georgian Interior Ministry, one police officer suffered injuries.
Tear gas was later deployed and groups of protesters reportedly spread across the city, blocking traffic along the capital's key thoroughfare.
The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs said the police, following “multiple warnings to demonstrators to express protest in a peaceful manner”, had taken legal measures, including “the use of special means” permitted by the law, to disperse the overnight rally.
According to the ministry, despite participants “having an opportunity to express their protest and continue their demonstration peacefully, as they had done in the previous two days” and “not to go beyond the law”, the actions of some of the protesters “turned violent”.
It was noted that the demonstrators had launched pyrotechnics at the Parliament building, as well as the law enforcement officers stationed nearby, verbally abused the police officers, and had thrown stones and other heavy objects in their direction.
The body added, as a result of investigative actions, its Central Criminal Police Department had arrested two individuals on charges of participating in group violent actions during the protests on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi.
The Georgian Interior Ministry detained 48 people at yesterday's rally in Tbilisi.
