Christian Activists unlawfully arrested in Paris
On August 5, Parisian police arrested six Christians who were on a bus labelled with “Stop attacks on Christians” driving around Paris to bring attention to the Last Supper parody at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony and its anti-Christian message.
The organisation CitizenGo had organised a bus to drive around the French capital emblazoned with the message on its side: “STOP ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANS!”. This came in response to the Paris Olympics opening sketch parodying the Last Supper with drag queens, a rotund lesbian and a transsexual TV celebrity. The show has sparked severe criticism, especially for involving a child.
According to CitizenGO, their bus was then suddenly stopped by the police who surrounded it at gunpoint and arrested six team members and the bus driver on the grounds that they had "organised a demonstration without authorisation from the French government". However, driving around in a bus does not qualify as a demonstration under French law and does therefore not require prior registration.
At the police station, the team members were handcuffed and then taken to a second security facility. According to the organisation's report, their belongings were confiscated, they were stripped and searched, they were denied the opportunity to contact their lawyers, and some were not even allowed to contact their families.
Some of the team members even reported having been put under severe psychological pressure and threatened with prolonged imprisonment. They said they had to spend the night in catastrophic conditions, and some were even deprived of food and water.
The team members were released the next day upon intervention of CitizenGO's lawyer. The prosecutor then issued the decision that there was no basis for an indictment and that the activists had done nothing wrong.
“It appears impossible to constitute the crime of failing to communicate a protest because there is no protest in the presence of one unique vehicle. The prosecutor pushed the law to its limits to stop the bus and limit their free speech. Moreover, the procedure was irregular,” the organisation's lawyer commented.
CitizenGo also said that, according to their sources, the French police had acted on the orders of high-ranking politicians.
Source: CitizenGo Press Release, CNA, Catholic Herald
Image: CitizenGo (X)