Georgian Riot Police Use Pepper Spray, Detain Protesters

Riot police used pepper spray against demonstrators and detained several of them in the Georgian capital on April 16. This came after thousands of protesters gathered for a second day in front of the parliament in Tbilisi as lawmakers in plenary session debated a revived bill to designate certain groups as "foreign agents." The ruling party previously backed the controversial "foreign agents" bill in 2023, then withdrew it in reaction to an earlier round of mass protests.