29 arrested for protesting foreign agents bill remain in custody

Twenty-nine individuals who were arrested on Thursday for hooliganism and disobedience to law enforcement officers while protesting the foreign agents bill still remain in custody, lawyers said on Friday. 

Initially police arrested 36 at the parliament building during the noisy discussion of the bills proposed by former members of the ruling Georgian Dream party, who still remain in the parliamentary majority. 

Two bills proposed by the People’s Power movement envisage the registration of “non-commercial legal entities and media outlets as agents of foreign influence if they receive more than 20 percent of their income from abroad”. 

The bills that were on Friday approved by two parliamentary committees, have also been sent to the CoE Venice Commission for opinion. 

The international community and domestic NGOs have slammed the bills as a “Russian law, aiming at stigmatization” of non-governmental and media organizations in the country that are critical to the government.