A decision that does not pass. On Tuesday, several organizations of lawyers, magistrates and the defense of human rights denounced orders taken “on the sly” by the Paris police headquarters to ban night gatherings against the pension reform.
“Since last Friday, demonstrators or simple opponents of the pension reform have been fined for participating in prohibited demonstrations”, while participation in an undeclared demonstration is not prohibited, indicated on Twitter the Syndicate of Lawyers of France.
The organizations have filed an emergency procedure
With, among others, the League of Human Rights (LDH) and the Syndicate of the Judiciary (SM, listed on the left), the SAF filed a request before the administrative justice.
The decree prohibiting “undeclared gatherings” between Monday 5 p.m. and Tuesday 3 a.m. was, for example, published at 5 p.m. “Why not publicize and make the decrees clearly legible if the goal is that people do not demonstrate? asks the SAF.
The prefecture of police indicated that it complies with article L221-2 of the code of relations between the public and the administration, which provides that “the entry into force of a regulatory act is subject to the completion of mandatory formalities publicity, in particular by means of a publication or display, unless otherwise provided”.
The organizations have filed a summary freedom (emergency procedure) with the Paris administrative court for the decree taken for the night of Monday to Tuesday, and the “practice” in general.
A “serious attack” on the freedom to demonstrate
These decrees, which carry a “serious attack” on the freedom to demonstrate, “only serve to scare the demonstrators, to dissuade people who want to make their voices heard from taking part in spontaneous gatherings”, explain the lawyers of the organizations, Mes Marion Ogier and Lionel Crusoé.
The notion of “undeclared gathering”, without mentioning “a number of people and even though it would not disturb public order”, also poses a problem because it is “fuzzy”, they underline. The administrative court rejected their request at the end of the day, considering that there was no “practice” and that each arrested had to be attacked individually.
As for the decree concerning the ban on assembly from Monday to Tuesday, the court was seized too late to convene a hearing, he argues in his decision. In a deliberation published on its site, the Council of the Order of the Paris Bar also denounced the verbalizations linked to these decrees.
He was particularly concerned about the “conditions for exercising law enforcement” in the context of the mobilization, in particular the “excessive and unjustified use of violence by the police against citizens , sometimes minors” and the “disproportionate number of arrests”.