Budapest police chief bans obstruction of bridges – UPDATE

Budapest, April 5 (MTI) – Budapest’s police chief has banned demonstrators from blocking the city’s bridges, according to a statement on the city police’s website police.hu.

In a final ruling citing the law on the right of assembly, Budapest police chief Gábor Bucsek said that such a demonstration would obstruct traffic between the two sides of the city and would therefore breach the rights of the citizens.

A private individual requested the right to block all Budapest bridges from Wednesday morning till Thursday 1pm, the statement said.

Amid a substantial police presence and media attention, a few demonstrators gathered at 8am on Wednesday morning at the Pest end of the Szabadság bridge. The bridge was not closed down.

A dozen activists blocked half of Erzsébet Bridge for a short time shortly after noon in protest against a law passed on Tuesday which is expected to adversely affect the Central European University. They sat in the middle of the bridge and blocked traffic from the direction of Pest to Buda. The Budapest police said on its website that the activists were escorted off the road just before 12:30pm. No one was injured in the incident. Police will submit reports against five persons for violating regulations.

Source: MTI