Brno, July 11 (CTK) – The Czech Constitutional Court (US) rejected on Tuesday the senators’ proposal for abolishing a section of the law on roads that the police had used to prevent a permitted demonstration in a square in Prague centre during the Chinese president’s visit last year.
A group of senators filed this proposal after the participants in an officially announced protest against human rights violations in China had not been allowed to enter the square.
This particular article of the law defines how the authorities should decide on closures. It enables to partially or completely close the operation on motorways, main and local roads as well as other public access drives.
The senators argue that the law is too general and that it does not sufficiently describe the purpose, conditions and limits of such a closure. Besides, it does not define how clerks should act in the case of a collision of interests, for example, security and the assembly right.
According to the US, the assembly right might be a key means to express opinions and preserve freedom and democracy, but not even this right is absolute.
An authority may decide to close a road or another public place where an announced gathering is to take place only if this step is necessary, for instance, to protect public peace, health, morality, property and state security in harmony with the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms.
The municipal authority closed the Hradcanske square outside Prague Castle, the presidential seat, at the police’s request exactly for security reasons even though a permitted demonstration was to be staged there.
The senators say this example shows how the law on roads can be abused to expediently circumvent the assembly law, which is at variance with the constitution.
However, the US did not accept their arguments.
Chinese President Xi Jinping spent three days in Prague in March 2016. His visit was accompanied by protests against the violation of human rights in China and skirmishes between his Chinese supporters and demonstrators who carried Tibetan flags.
