Christian activists “unlawfully” arrested at Paris Olympic Games

During the opening ceremony, transgenders and drag queens staged a performance that alluded to Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper. Christians all over the world experienced this performance as a desecration of something which is most holy to them. The organisation of CitizenGo –a group of activists defending 'life, family and freedom across the world'– concluded that this insult could not go unchallenged. They drew up a petition, which in the course of this week gained almost 400,000 signatures.

As a follow-up, the activists of CitizenGo commissioned a bus, displaying the message 'Stop Attacks on Christians!' and the website address of their petition. Last Monday, they drove to Paris and started to circulate the city with their bus, attracting a lot of attention. The aim of their action was to send a 'strong message' to the organisers of the Olympic Games that the public is not prepared to accept 'such blatant mockery of Christianity as happened at the Olympic Ceremony'.

  They also attracted the attention of the police, members of CitizenGo wrote in an e-mail, which was made available to CNE. The bus was stopped and surrounded by policemen, and the passengers, six activists and the driver were transported to a police station "for organising a demonstration without the approval of the French government". At the police station, the campaigners were handcuffed and had to spend the night in a second secure facility. All of them were questioned by the police. 

Expelled

In the meantime, the bus was parked at the Police Station in District 16, just three blocks from the Arc de Triomphe, in front of everyone in the middle of downtown Paris.    CitizenGo succeeded in sending a lawyer to the police station, and all campaigners were set free in the course of Tuesday. The regulations that the police had been referring to, pertain to formal large-scale street demonstrations and marches, not to a solitary bus with a message printed on its sides. When they returned to their bus, the police demanded them to remove the message from it, and as they refused, the bus was expelled from the city, escorted by three police motorcycles.

Free speech

The prosecutors later reached the conclusion that there was no basis for any charges. The lawyer commented: "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."

CitizenGo has decided to file a lawsuit against 'high-ranking political officials', who, CitizenGo believes, ordered the acting of the Paris police.

The Paris police have not responded to questions from CNE.