The Warsaw district court upheld the decision of the president of the capital to ban the Independence March, planned for November 11. The court’s decision is not final. The organizers of the march announced that a complaint would be lodged.
The Independence March has been registered as such since 2017.
/Photo by Tomasz Jastrzebowski /Reporter
The President of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, did not consent to the organization of the Independence March scheduled for November 11. As he justified, he made the decision to prohibit the organization of the march after obtaining a negative opinion from the Sanepid in this matter. He emphasized that this opinion points to a difficult epidemic situation, especially in Warsaw and Mazovia. The Independence March Association appealed against the decision of the president of the capital to the court.
On Saturday, November 7 in the afternoon, the District Court in Warsaw examined the organizers’ appeal. According to the SO judge Sylwia Urbańska, this court dismissed the appeal of the organizers of the march.
The plenipotentiary of the March of Independence Association, attorney Adam Janos, informed in turn that the court stated in the justification of this decision that it approached the arguments raised in the appeal very seriously. As he added, the court justified that, due to the prevailing epidemiological situation, in exceptional circumstances it had decided not to take into account the arguments of the appellant.
The lawyer announced that after reviewing the written justification, the association would file a complaint to the court of appeal.
The Warsaw City Hall, justifying the decision to ban the march on Friday, said that, in the opinion of the Masovian Sanepid, such an assembly could not be held because “it violates the current legal status and poses a threat to the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus, which may increase the number of people suffering from COVID-19 and healthcare overload “.
When issuing the decision to prohibit the Independence March, Trzaskowski referred to the provisions of the Law on Assemblies, according to which the commune authority issues a decision to prohibit an assembly no later than 96 hours before the planned date of the assembly, if its holding may pose a threat to the life or health of people or property in significant sizes. This provision also applies to cyclical assemblies.
The Independence March has been registered as such an assembly since 2017. This year, among others, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Deputy Minister of Health Waldemar Kraska.
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