The grassroots activist group United for Palestine (UFP) has criticised the government for promoting a bill which would grant powers to the police to restrict public protesting.
The Ministry of Justice officially announced the launch of a public consultation on the bill, titled “The Public Gatherings and Parades Law of 2024”, on 26 April.
If ratified into law, it would provide the government and the police with the power to significantly restrict public gatherings and protests, including the possibility of banning them altogether.
UFP, which has organised numerous pro-Palestinian protests during the past six months calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, has criticised the bill in a press release, for “restricting the inalienable and constitutional human right to assemble and demonstrate”.
“We believe that what should alarm them is the very attitude of the police who have been recording many incidents of misconduct in the past month, culminating in the death of Anis Rahman, the Bangladeshi migrant who was killed on April 10, 2024, under suspicious circumstances after his apartment was unjustifiably raided by non-uniformed police officers”, UFP states.
The group moves on to specify incidences of “police harassment and intimidation” during a protest it held on Sunday, 21 April 2024 in Limassol.
“At the beginning of the march, non-uniformed police demanded IDs, telephone numbers and addresses from protestors, an illegal demand unless the police have reasonable grounds to believe that a crime is being or is about to be committed. But no such claim was made by the police”, the group notes.
According to UFP, as protestors marched in Limassol, members of the police demanded that a protestor provide his ID and other personal information.
In its statement, the group further details how the protestor was surrounded by uniformed and plain-clothed police, handcuffed and threatened with arrest if he did not provide his details, leading to injuries to his hands.
“This whole episode shows that, yet again and despite all reassurances from the government to the contrary, the police in Limassol are out of order and on a mission to suppress the democratic rights of activists fighting against racism and against genocide. We demand an explanation from the government and parliament as to our right to protest peacefully without police violence, harassment and intimidation”, UFP concludes.
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