Over 40 people hospitalized in Georgia during protests

Tbilisi: A third night of protests in the Georgian capital against the government’s decision to suspend negotiations to join the European Union left 44 people hospitalized after police deployed water cannons and tear gas, officials said Sunday.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the parliament Saturday night, throwing stones and setting off fireworks.

An effigy of the founder of the governing Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili — a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia — was burned in front of the legislature.

Georgia’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that 27 protesters, 16 police and one media worker were hospitalized.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze warned that “any violation of the law will be met with the full rigor of the law.”

“Neither will those politicians who hide

in their offices and sacrifice members of their violent groups to severe punishment escape responsibility,” he said at a briefing Sunday.

He said it wasn’t true that Georgia’s European integration had been halted.

“The only thing we have rejected is the shameful and offensive blackmail, which was, in fact, a significant obstacle to our country’s European integration.”