(TibetanReview.net, Nov20’21) – An appellate court in the Czech Republic has ruled Nov 18 that the country’s police acted illegally when they prevented free Tibet supporters and others from holding peaceful protests against the visit of the Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2016, reported the Tibet Bureau, Geneva, Nov 19.
Xi visited the Czech capital Prague on Mar 28, 2016 and the suit was filed by peaceful protesters Martin Bursik, Katerina Bursik Jacques, Tomas Pikola, Katerina Kudlackova on Mar 29, 2016.
Several hundred Czech citizens rallied in Prague against Xi’s visit at that time, waving Tibetan national flags and chanting slogans such as “Freedom for Tibet”.
However, the Czech police closed the main protest venue Hradčany Square to the peaceful protesters, claiming “traffic regulation”.
The demonstrators were also confronted by Chinese people. And there was an incident in which a Chinese couple snatched a Tibetan National flag from a Czech woman and threw it into the nearby Vltava River.
The case was initially dismissed by the lower court. An appeal was admitted by a municipal court, which gave its final ruling on Nov 18.
Bursik, chairman of the Czechs Support Tibet organization, has said, “Had we not spoken up, it would have considerably weakened the state of our democracy”.
The court has decreed compensation and cost for the plaintiffs.
