Free all the detainees and Stop Oppressing Freedom of Assembly!

(18 May 2014, Seoul) Yesterday(17 May 2014), police authority has forcibly hauled 119 participants in who swerved from the original course near An-guk subway station in the assembly where people had held rally to cherish the victims of ferry ‘Sewol’

They were participants who were in the course and the others, away from the course of the assembly, all who tried to return to Seoul City Hall where there supposed to be held formal assembly after a march. However, the police suddenly interrupted and besieged them and then hauled them abruptly. They also violently hauled people who stayed in sidewalk and in parking lot, resulting in injuries.  Among them were even secondary students.

We not only denounce the injustice of the police authority who have hauled the peaceful protesters, but also demand the truth of the ferry ‘Sewol’ to be investigated. It is not always illegal to march on the street which is different from reported course. And no one has right to dissolute the peaceful mach even though it is not reported, and no one has right to arrest people who walked to different area after the mach.

It is an absolute violation of the freedom of assembly that is clearly enshrined in the Constitution. Only is a sheer intention to tame people under the regime’s intention that the government restricts assembly under the de-facto ‘permit system’ and finds every little pretext to make them illegal.

Free all the detainee!
And Stop Oppressing Freedom of Assembly!

For more information or media inquiry, please contact People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (Ms. Gayoon Baek, pspdint@pspd.org, +82 (0)2 723 5051).

Korean Statement >> 집회의 자유 탄압 중단하고 연행자를 모두 석방하라 

(Translated by Jae-hee Jang (장재희님), Volunteer)