Georgian law enforcers significantly tighten control over protest actions

The protest actions held in Tbilisi in February 2020 were attended by more law enforcers than protesters, employees of the Institute for Democracy Studies have informed.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 1, the NGO "Democratic Initiative of Georgia" announced a restriction on the freedom of expression in the country. According to human rights defenders, law enforcers stick to a particularly tough approach with regard to demonstrations criticizing the government; while the Georgian National Communications Commission acts as a media censor, by restricting their freedom.

The NGO "Institute for Democracy Studies" has fixed a disproportionately large presence of policemen at protests in Tbilisi. Given the fact that the number of demonstrations held in the capital of Georgia over the past month has decreased such interference by the authorities in the process of holding them is unjustified, human rights defenders assert.

The NGO's experts have monitored all the protest actions held in February in Tbilisi and came to the conclusion that the number of law enforcers present at these actions by far exceeded the number of protesters. "Besides, some people in civilian clothes often spoke with law enforcers, from which observers concluded that they were law enforcers too," says the NGO's report, translated by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 6, 2020 at 07:41 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.