Foreign agents bill “has done its job” – ruling party head

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Friday said the process related to the controversial foreign agents bill had done ‘its job” despite its initial approval with its first reading and later rejection by the legislative body amid mass protests. 

 

Kobakhidze claimed the bill had done “three important things” that included the negative attitude to the “agent’s label”, that “everyone had received information about the NGOs that as he said had been involved in “anti-state efforts” and that “none of the NGOs” would be able to facilitate the former government’s re-taking office. 

 

The  ruling party on Thursday said it was withdrawing the bill that envisaged the registration of domestic NGOs and media organizations as foreign agents if they received more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad, strongly condemned by the international community as a Russian law. 

 

As the law was approved with its first reading earlier this week amid large-scale protests, the bill was rejected on Friday with its second reading, as part of mandatory procedures. 

 

The Georgian Interior Ministry on Friday said it had arrested 133 individuals during the rallies for petty hooliganism and disobedience to law enforcement officers, while 58 of its employees had received various injuries in clashes with demonstrators, with five of them still remaining in a hospital.