The police in Poznań today briefly detained and interrogated 65 demonstrators during the March of Equality organized by organizations of leftist and gay activists in Poznań, western Poland.

Demonstrators protested against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender, race, and disability, the organizers said.

The march was banned by the mayor of Poznań, who cited security reasons. A year earlier, a similar legal event led to street riots with far-right activists. The organizers of the march claimed that the mayor of Poznań, Ryszard Grobelny, surrendered to the demands of far-right parties and the Catholic clergy, who believed the demonstration was immoral.

Riot police surrounded the demonstrators shortly after they began their march. 65 demonstrators, who sat on the street, were pulled out of the crowd, detained, and interrogated at police stations.

“They were dragging us around on the street,” a demonstrator told the Warsaw Independent news agency.

“I was put in a police car, driven to a police station, and charged with taking part in an illegal gathering,” the demonstrator said, adding he will be tried for a misdemeanor.

“The police surrounded the demonstrators with a double cordon,” the Campaign against Homophobia, a non-governmental organization, said in a statement following the march. “Police units headed for the demonstrators. The policemen brutally pulled sitting demonstrators from the group and dragged them along the sidewalk.”

Tadeusz Iwiński, an MP of the post-communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), said he had filed an official interpellation to the government, alleging the violation of Polish domestic and European Union regulations regarding the freedom of expression and gathering.

Neither the police or governing politicians were not available for comment when Warsaw Independent news agency. posted this news item.


By Marcin Sobczyk (Warsaw Independent)