This is the first time that France has been condemned for this practice of surrounding demonstrators. According to a source within the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for having used the trap technique against demonstrators during a rally against pension reform, in Lyon. This is the first time that France has been condemned for this encirclement technique used by the police.
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The trap which was discussed before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) was operated in Lyon in 2010, preventing for hours several hundred demonstrators from leaving Place Bellecour to join the procession against the reform of the retirements.
Fourteen years later, this Thursday, February 8, the European Court of Human Rights considers that there has been a violation of the freedoms of expression, movement and assembly, even though they are guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. man.
At the time, the surrounding of several individuals by the police was prohibited by law in France. It was only in 2021, with the new national law enforcement plan, that the trap technique came into force. The ECHR, however, recalls that even if sinking is now regulated by law, the police must not abuse it, because it can contravene several fundamental freedoms.
The technique continues to be debated in France. In 2021, the Council of State, the highest administrative court, ruled that the surroundings of demonstrators were illegal. France then had to pay all the applicants the sum of 1,714 euros in compensation.
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