The wise men at the Justice Ministry have sat down and conceived a bill that places restrictions on demonstrations, gatherings and… parades.
Its discussion and vote in parliament was postponed from Thursday’s plenary session and has been deferred. The proposed regulations in the bill provide for notification procedures by demonstration or parade organisers, the conduct of spontaneous (!) gatherings, the obligations of demonstration or parade organisers and the police, the appointment of a responsible officer as liaison with the organiser, and other matters.
What other matters? The power of the Chief of Police to impose restrictions on gatherings “under specific conditions and based on predetermined procedures”, as well as describing cases where the Chief of Police may decide to disperse a gathering or parade and the relevant procedure that must precede such a decision.
Also, the establishment of offences in cases where a person incites others to use violence or engages in acts of violence themselves, refuses without reasonable cause to remove an object or product or device which covers or conceals their identity in any way or alters their characteristics so that they cannot be identified, and after notification of a decision to disperse the gathering or parade, covers or conceals their identity in any way or alters their characteristics in such a way that they are not recognisable.
The bill also establishes criminal offences relating to the use of violence or covering one’s face with a hood or something else, something which is certainly not connected to the commission of a specific offence. Among other things, the bill contains provisions that set twenty participants as the minimum number for conducting a gathering, as well as the sending of notification of a gathering by the organiser to the Chief of Police at least seven days in advance. A provision also gives Cyprus Police the discretionary power to ask a person in the area of the gathering or parade to remove an object that conceals or covers their identity if there is reasonable suspicion that the gathering or parade is about to become non-peaceful.
“It sounds like something PASOK, Solomos or Tsatsos might have said, so I’ll whisper it quietly lest the copper hear us”: There is no serious reason to pass this bill. The demonstrations that take place in Cyprus are unfortunately few and far between, whilst those that turn violent are rare to very rare. This is a bill prepared solely for the prestige of a power that wants to short-circuit society even further and rid itself of a supposedly future headache. There is no clear justification for approving this bill, which lumps together all protesters and makes them suspect from the outset of using violence.
In short, MPs who approve this bill should think twice, even three times, as it “gifts” any police officer the “discretionary power” to determine which gathering or demonstration might become violent. This bill, which offends every notion of human rights and freedom of expression, as under the term “reasonable suspicion” it gives police free rein to use violence on their part, criminalises a time-honoured process of protest and designates those responsible, who will be tried for possible acts by third parties or for the hood of a sweatshirt, if deemed so by this or that duty officer.
