France condemned by the ECHR for the use of a police trap in a demonstration in 2010

The case concerned the surroundings of a dozen people by the police, in Lyon, during a demonstration against a pension reform project.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned France, Thursday February 8, for the use without legal basis of a police trap during a demonstration in 2010 in Lyon. The European court considers that the applicants were victims of violations of freedoms of movement, assembly and expression.

The use of a police trap had no legal framework at the time of the events, almost 15 years ago, according to the ECHR. The Ministry of the Interior has since published a new national law enforcement plan in December 2021, which governs this technique.

The case concerns the encirclement of the applicants, a dozen people, for several hours by the police on Place Bellecour in Lyon, on October 21, 2010, during a demonstration against a bill on the pension reform.

“A victory of principle” for the protesters’ lawyer

“Any restrictive measure” the freedoms of movement, expression and peaceful assembly, guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, “must be provided for by law”, recalls, in a press release, the ECHR. She “infers that the use by the police of the technique of encirclement was not, at the time of the events, provided for by law”and consequently notes several violations of the Convention, including those relating to freedom of movement, assembly and association.

The applicants’ lawyer, Patrice Spinosi, welcomed “a victory in principle which demonstrates that the use of the practice of ‘traps’ or ‘encirclement’ (…) was illegal in France before the entry into force of the national plan for maintaining order in December 2021”.