By Lee Hyo-sik
A police closure of Seoul Plaza with riot police buses to prevent a rally from being organized is unconstitutional as it infringes upon the people’s rights to free movement and use of public spaces, the Constitutional Court said Thursday.
The court said that the police cannot indiscriminately deny the public access to Seoul Plaza even though there is a possibility that illegal gatherings or violent protests may be organized at the popular assembly site.
``Police should have taken only specific and lesser measures to prevent an illicit protest from taking place at the time. Denying the entire public access to the plaza goes against the constitution because it overly restricts citizens’ freedom of movement and use of public resources,’’ the court said.
Of the nine judges, seven found the police action unconstitutional, while the remaining two said it did not breach the Constitution because police limited the public access to the plaza only for a short period of time.
Following the police blockade of Seoul Plaza from May 23 through June 4, 2009 following the death of former President Roh Moo-hyun, nine senior officials of the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy filed a petition with the Constitutional Court against then National Police Agency Commissioner General Kang Hee-rak.
In the petition, they claimed that their constitutional rights to move freely and pursue happiness were violated by the police who abused their power by ``excessively’’ blocking access to Seoul Plaza.
Police at the time decided to make the site off-limits as a mass tribute to late former President Roh, who committed suicide on May 23 by jumping off a cliff near his residence in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, could turn into another candlelit vigil.
In June 2008, four months after President Lee Myung-bak took office, civic group members, students and citizens took to the streets, opposing the Lee administration’s decision to import U.S. beef.
The demonstration turned into a massive candlelit protest, forcing the government in the end to scrap its plan to bring American beef into the country.