Court bans Orange Revolution Anniversary demonstrations

On 18 November the Kyiv District Administrative Court allowed an application by Oleksandr Popov, the Head of the Kyiv City State Administration to ban meetings planned on Maidan Nezalezhnosti [Independence Square] to mark the seventh anniversary of the Orange Revolution on 22 November.  A number of groups had notified of their intention to hold meetings, including the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners; the Coalition of Participants of the Orange Revolution and others.

The application was supposedly made on the request of police who said that there was a strong likelihood of clashes. 

According to the blog site Maidan 2011 which provides scanned copies of the rulings, the Head of the Kyiv Central Police Department, O. Krykun justifies the call for a ban not only on the “high likelihood of confrontation” between different organizations, but also conflict between those gathered and police units “which could lead to a sharp escalation of the political situation”.

Information from http://maydan2011.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/zaborona/  Photo from TV 1 + 1