Filenews 29 May 2025 - by Michalis Hadzivasilis
The government, the Parliament and those involved are fighting for it in order to find the golden mean regarding the bill that regulates gatherings and parades and at the same time criminalizes the hood.
MPs express strong reservations - mainly on the part of AKEL - in view of the recent decision of the ECtHR where a German who was convicted in his country for wearing a mask at a rally and was acquitted by the European Court of Justice because it was ruled that his constitutional right to freedom of expression was affected. In the Legal Committee of the Parliament, where the issue is being discussed, it was mentioned that there are other decisions of the same Court that justify the prosecution of people because they wore a hood.
A lively debate was held regarding when a rally or a protest march is dissolved. As it was said, if five people cause incidents in a rally, why should "300-400 people pay for it?" As the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Justice said, it is up to the police officer to decide when a march or a rally should be dispersed. As he explained, first the officer in charge comes to an agreement with the organizer of the march-event on how it will be conducted.
Then, if this is diverted or there is a risk of incidents, then the organizer is called upon to comply. If this is not done, then there is a warning that the gathering will have to be dissolved and if this does not happen either, then it is decided after weighing all the data, whether the Police will intervene.
Having said that, questions were asked by MPs what the Police would have done differently in the case of the hunters in Skarinou, if the legislation under discussion existed. The spokeswoman of the Ministry of Justice, Phaedra Grigoriou, did not respond, since in that case she said, the Police responded that she did not want to intervene due to ensuring public safety.
Furthermore, Mrs. Grigoriou mentioned that the bill criminalizes three offenses, while she clarified that the organizer of an event is not subject to criminal liability. A guilty offense will be the one who either proceeds or urges others to commit deviations, anyone who participates in a rally or parade and refuses to remove anything that hides his face and whoever even though it has been decided to dissolve the rally does not leave.
The chairman of the Committee, Nikos Tornaritis, said that with the bill we should protect the right of citizens to demonstrate and those who are outside the framework to be punished. He added that the debate on the article has begun and we are about halfway through, expressing the hope that very soon the Committee will come up with this bill. Responding to a question about the concerns that have been expressed about an attempt to control the gatherings, Mr. Tornaritis explained that "there will be a more organized, more institutionalized state of affairs, there will be an organizer, who will notify the Police and the local authority in which the gathering will take place, so that we do not have extravagances and the gatherings do not lead to a state of affairs, which harasses either the gathering itself or citizens who do not participate in the specific event".
