48 detained in crackdown on pro-EU protests in Georgia

Brussels: Police detained 48 people overnight Friday after a pro-European Union rally in the capital Tbilisi, Georgia’s interior ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Thousands have been protesting for more than a week since a Nov. 28 government decision to shelve EU accession talks. Friday night’s protests ended violently, with riot police using water cannons and firing tear gas, according to local media.

The country, which lies along the Caucasus Mountains between Europe and Asia, has been rocked by political unrest since a controversial national election at the end of October saw Georgia’s increasingly authoritarian government secure a majority. Protests swelled last week after Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said talks on EU membership would be postponed until 2028.

Formerly Soviet Georgia remains well within Russia’s orbit, with pro-Russian forces a powerful presence there.

When the new wave of protests started on the night of Nov. 29, more than 100 people were arrested after injury of 42 ministry “employees” who participated in law enforcement, the interior ministry previously reported.

The BBC estimated more than 300 people had been arrested — ahead of the Friday detentions — since the renewed protests that have running for more than a week.

Ukraine, Latvia and Lithuania are among countries sanctioning Georgian officials for the ruling party’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.