Night gatherings in Paris: justice orders the prefect to publish the bans upstream

The administrative court of Paris ordered Tuesday April 4 the prefect of police of the capital to publish the decrees prohibiting the night gatherings against the reform of the pensions on the site of the prefecture and sufficiently upstream of their entry into force.

Taking ‘record of this court decision“, the Paris police headquarters told AFP “do not, however, rule out appealing“.

Justice responds to the appeal of four associations

The Association for the Defense of Constitutional Liberties (Adelico), the League for Human Rights (LDH), the Syndicate of Lawyers of France (SAF), the Syndicate of the Judiciary (SM) as well as individual applicants had seized Friday the court in summary release (emergency). These organizations denounced the takingin catimini“Arrested since March 17 prohibiting gatherings in a large part of the center of the capital, resulting in verbalizations up to 135 euros.

They pointed out that these daily decrees were the subject of a publication “very random” and were for some published after their entry into force: on March 27, the decree was for example published online at 5:30 p.m., that is to say 30 minutes after the start of the ban. The organizations had already filed a first interim release on the evening of March 27, but this request was then rejected, the court having been seized too late to convene a hearing. On Monday, they had requested that the prefecture publish the orders on its website, on Twitter and via signs on the public highway.

Read alsoPensions: in several cities, the demonstrations degenerate into clashes and fires

Speaking of “transparency” and of “common sense“, Me Jean-Baptiste Soufron, lawyer for certain applicants, had denounced “maneuversof the prefecture. “We are not in the maintenance of order but in a strategy which aims to discourage people from going to demonstrate“, he argued, while participation in an undeclared demonstration is not illegal. Me Lionel Crusoé, also counsel for the applicants, had considered that these practices carried “violation of various fundamental freedoms“, especially “the right to an effective remedy», that is to say the possibility for citizens to go to court to challenge the decrees.

The representative of the prefecture had affirmed that the appeal was “totally unfounded» and had denounced the «trial of intentmade to the prefecture. He pointed out that the decrees were published “on the door outside» and that the prefecture does not «did not disregard a rule applicable to the administration“.

It is based on the “right to effective remedy“that the court agreed with the applicants, by imposing on the prefecture a publication”on the prefecture’s website within a period allowingto file an appeal against him, according to the order on Tuesday. Between March 17 and 27, 500 verbalizations were drawn up for participation in a demonstration prohibited on the public highway, according to the prefecture.