At this stage, 20 persons have been detained by police under Articles 166 and 173 within the Code of Administrative Offenses.
“They violated public order, resisted and insulted law enforcement officers,” reads the statement released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
“It should be noted that the participants of the rally were located on the streets surrounding Parliament, including Z. Zhvania, Sh. Chitadze and B. Chichinadze streets, where entrances of the legislative body are located.
“The organizers and participants of the rally publicly declared that they would not allow the parliament members to attend and participate in the Legal Committee session of the Parliament scheduled for May 13 at 09:00 am. The employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs repeatedly called on the organizers and participants of manifestation to clear the entrances of the legislative body to allow the parliament members and staff enter the parliament building and exercise their parliamentary powers.
“Despite numerous appeals made by the police to the organizers and participants of the rally, as well as the statement published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to follow the legal requests of the representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, not to exceed the limits defined by the law on assembly and manifestation, some of the demonstrators ignored the legal request of the police. They violated public order, resisted and insulted law enforcement officers. At this stage, 20 persons have been detained by police according to Articles 166 and 173 under the Code of Administrative Offenses.
“Three of the arrested persons are citizens of foreign countries, namely: citizen of the Russian Federation, G.B. (DoB 2002), citizen of the United States of America P.H. (DoB 1995) and another citizen of the same country, who refused to reveal his identity and requested to contact the United States Embassy in Georgia,” the MIA said.
Video footage shows police abusing protesters both during and after the arrests, when the detainees were tied up or laid on the ground. The police kicked some detainees, punched them in the head.
