Case 348_37
348_37 accessibility
37. Having regard to the material in the case files and the parties’
submissions, the Court notes that the issues raised by the present complaints
are essentially the same as those examined in the Gafgaz Mammadov case
(cited above). The facts of that case and the present cases are similar to a
significant degree. The Court considers that the analysis and conclusions
made in the Gafgaz Mammadov case also apply to the present cases. In
particular, the Court noted the existence of serious concerns about the
foreseeability and precision of the legislation governing public assemblies,
and about the possibility of public assemblies being abusively banned or
dispersed (ibid., § 55); doubts about the credibility of the formal ground,
namely Article 310.1 of the CAO, relied on by the authorities to arrest and
convict the participant of an unauthorised demonstration (ibid., §§ 56
and 62); a failure by the authorities to take into consideration the fact that
the demonstration had been notified (ibid., § 60); a lack of relevant and
sufficient reasons justifying the dispersal of the demonstration which had
been intended to be peaceful and had been conducted in a peaceful manner
(ibid., § 61); and a lack of any acknowledgment that the act of participating
in an unauthorised peaceful demonstration was by itself protected by
Article 11 of the Convention (ibid., §§ 63-64). Having regard to the above,
in the Gafgaz Mammadov case the Court found that the applicant’s right to
freedom of assembly had been violated on account of the dispersal of the
demonstration and his arrest and conviction.