After a tumultuous night of staunch opposition to the Foreign Agents Law, during which police violently cracked down on peaceful demonstrators, the Georgian Parliament continues deliberations on the law in its second reading. The legislature will vote on the bill today, April 1. Citizens will again protest the bill in the capital, this time with many coming from other regions of Georgia as well.
The session began with verbal standoff between the ruling majority and opposition MPs over the events of the previous night. Levan Khabeishvili, the leader of the UNM, who had been severely beaten by the police despite strong recommendations that he be hospitalized, also arrived at the Parliament using a wheelchair and addressed the MPs. He said that the police pressured him to say that he was a coward, threatening to beat him if he did not, and after he refused, he was beaten by several police officers. He also said: “I may not see with my eye, but Georgia will open its eyes and see clearly.” He also called on the ruling majority to withdraw the law.
At the beginning of the session opposition MPs began to make critical remarks about last night’s crackdown on citizens and calling for the withdrawal of the draft bill. In all these cases, the Speaker of the Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, turned off their microphones. So far, two opposition MPs, Tamar Charkviani of the Law and Justice Party and Salome Samadashvili of Lelo for Georgia, have been expelled from the session.
More to follow…
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