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Massive protests in Georgia, sparked by the ruling party’s decision to suspend EU accession negotiations, entered a second week on Thursday as police cracked down on demonstrators with increasingly forceful action.

On Wednesday, an opposition leader was dragged into a police car and arrested, his party said.

Several other activists have been arrested and dozens of protesters and some journalists have been brutally assaulted.

Georgian journalist Guram Rogava was broadcasting live from a protest when a riot police officer walked up to him on Friday and hit him on the head. Mr Rogava suffered broken facial bones in the attack.

“It was clear that they deliberately attacked media representatives,” he told the Associated Press.

“The government is in such a state that its survival instinct for some reason dictates the need to intimidate the media.”

The ruling Georgian Dream retained control of parliament during the disputed October 26 elections, a vote widely seen as a referendum on Georgia’s EU aspirations.

The opposition and pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili have accused the ruling party of rigging the elections, with help from neighboring Russia, and have boycotted parliamentary sessions.

Riot police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse demonstrations and beat dozens of protesters, who threw fireworks at police and set up barricades on the central boulevard of the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

On Wednesday, the opposition Coalition for Change party said police raided its offices and arrested its leader, Nika Gvaramia. A video was shared showing several officers dragging Mr Gvaramia into a car.

Activists have also been arrested in police raids on offices of several opposition parties and non-governmental organizations, and one of them, Aleko Elisashvili, was hospitalized for injuries sustained during detention.

More than 300 protesters have been arrested and more than 100 people have been treated for injuries.

Lazare Maghlakelidze, a 20-year-old student who joined the protests, said police officers who arrested him at the protest on Monday morning threatened to rape him and then hit him on the head several times.

“They immediately started beating me as soon as they made sure there were no cameras around,” Maghlakelidze said. Despite a head injury and a broken nose, he said he is even more determined to keep protesting.

The Georgian Special Investigation Service, a government agency that investigates alleged abuse of power, says it is investigating violence against protesters and interference in the professional work of journalists.

It said more than 300 people, including journalists and demonstrators, reported violations of their rights during the protests.

“It was systemic, widespread violence against protesters just for the fact that they were at the demonstration and protesting,” Oniani said.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze of the Georgian Dream party said the raids on opposition groups’ offices targeted those who encouraged violence during protests in a bid to overthrow his government.

“I wouldn’t call this repression, it is more of a preventive measure than repression,” Kobakhidze said.

The EU granted Georgia candidate country status in December 2023 on the condition that the country complies with the bloc’s recommendations, but put accession on hold in June and cut financial support after the adoption of a law on ‘ foreign influence’ that was widely seen as a blow to democracy. freedoms.

The law requires organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power,” similar to a Russian law used to ban organizations critical of the government to discredit.