The raid in Tbilisi comes after lawmakers debated a controversial bill on foreign financing.
Police in Georgia used tear gas and rubber bullets against demonstrators as thousands gathered outside parliament in Tbilisi for a third week to protest against a controversial “foreign influence” law.
Masked riot police violently cracked down on the rally on Tuesday, beating and arresting many people protesting against the law, which Brussels says undermines Georgia’s aspirations to join the European Union.
Lawmakers previously debated controversial legislation that would require organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents.”
The parliamentary session ended without a vote and debate was scheduled to continue on Wednesday.
The proposed law has deepened divisions between the ruling Georgian Dream party and the protest movement, which is supported by opposition groups, civil society, celebrities and Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili.
Georgian Dream has a commanding majority in the legislature, allowing it to pass laws and override a presidential veto without relying on support from opposition lawmakers.
Critics called the bill a “Russian law” and compared it to Moscow’s “foreign agent” law, which cracks down on dissent there.
Russia is unpopular with many Georgians because of its support for the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Georgia lost a brief war with Russia in 2008.
The United States, the United Kingdom and the EU, which granted Georgia candidate status in December, criticized the bill. European Council President Charles Michel said the bill was “not consistent” with Georgia’s application for EU membership and would “take Georgia further away from the EU, not closer.”
Tina Khidasheli, who served as Georgia’s defense minister in a Georgian Dream-led government from 2015 to 2016, attended Tuesday’s protest against her former government colleagues and said she expected the protesters would eventually win.
“The government is just prolonging the inevitable. We could have serious problems, but at the end of the day people will go home with a victory,” Khidasheli told Reuters.
On Monday, tens of thousands attended a government-organized rally in support of the bill, many of whom traveled from provincial towns on buses from the ruling party.
Last month, discussions over the controversial new law erupted in the corridors of parliament in Tbilisi.