The court has acquitted 13 people accused of offenses during protests in front of the parliament in December 2016. The alleged wrongdoing was participation in the gathering after it was dissolved and blocking a public road.
"The accused came there to exercise a right guaranteed by the Constitution. It's hard to comprehend any actions aimed at curbing this right," said judge Łukasz Biliński.
According to the judge, the accused couldn't have committed an offense of participating in a dissolved gathering, because the decision by the police chief to dissolve it wasn't legally binding. Judge Biliński added that such decision should include basic elements such as a justification and be preceeded by a warning about the possibility of dissolving.
Judge Biliński also pointed to the fact that the demonstrators didn't commit an offence of obstructing traffic, as a spontaneous gathering cannot be treated as a public road block.
Attorney Jarosław Kaczyński who represented the defendants said that the ruling was "fair and expected".
The abovementioned protests took place at nights between 16 and 17 December and between 19 and 20 of December 2016, in front of the Sejm building in Warsaw. Supporters of the Committee for the Defense of Democracy (KOD) took to the streets in protest against changes to rules organising journalists access to the parliament and to support opposition's politicians who were protesting in the Sejm.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 International, PAP
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: tvn24