Case 120_76
120_76 interference
76. The Court further notes that the demonstration in question is the
same demonstration in which the applicant in the above-mentioned case of
Galstyan participated. In that case, the Court established that the
demonstration in question was neither intended to be not peaceful nor was it
prohibited. Furthermore, the authorities never attempted to disperse the
demonstration or to order its participants, including the applicant, to leave
on account of it being illegal or unauthorised or obstructing traffic (ibid.,
§ 101). It is true that, in the present case, the police report stated that the
applicant had participated in an unauthorised march heading from the
Research Institute towards the Constitutional Court (see paragraph 10
above). However, first of all, this allegation was not confirmed in the course
of the court proceedings since the applicant was not convicted for her
participation in an allegedly unauthorised march, but for certain actions
committed at the demonstration on the Mashtots Avenue located in front of
the Research Institute (see paragraph 17 above). Secondly, it is not clear on
what grounds such an allegation was made by the reporting police officer
taking into account that at the material time there was no legal act
applicable in Armenia containing rules for organising and holding rallies
and street marches, including the rules for authorising such events (see
Mkrtchyan v. Armenia, no. 6562/03, § 43, 11 January 2007). The Court
further notes that the Government did not allege that the demonstration was
unauthorised or unlawful either. There is therefore nothing in the materials
of the present case that would prompt the Court to depart from the findings
made in the case of Galstyan. Thus, by joining the demonstration, the
applicant availed herself of her right to freedom of peaceful assembly and
the sanction that followed amounted to an interference with that right.