The Public Prosecution Service wrongly imposed an area ban on three climate activists who called for a blockade of the A12 in The Hague. The ban for five other demonstrators of the Extinction Rebellion action group was justified. That judges the court of The Hague on Tuesday in a case where the protesters challenged their restraining order. Due to this measure, they were not allowed to approach the A12 at the end of last month, where hundreds of climate protesters took action against subsidies for the fossil industry.
The judge argues that an area ban can be justified for someone who is suspected of having disturbed public order. According to the court, if the person only calls for this, this is not the case. The ninety-day area ban was therefore wrongly imposed on three activists. This is different for the five others, because before the demonstration at the end of January they had already called for various blockade actions that also took place. Their calls from the past, which had already resulted in actual actions, make the ban imposed in January justified, the judge says.
Justice restricts the right to demonstrate when imposing an area ban. According to the judge, this measure is justified in the case of the five ‘in the interest of road safety’. A maximum speed of seventy kilometers per hour applies on the Utrechtsebaan (A12), as a result of which blockades can lead to “disruptive and dangerous situations”, according to the court. Because the road, located between the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the temporary building of the House of Representatives, was occupied for hours by hundreds of activists, it was impassable for traffic that day.