Principal facts
The applicant, the Christian Democratic People’s Party (“the CDPP”), is a political party in the Republic of Moldova which was represented in Parliament and was in opposition at the time of the events.
In December 2003, the applicant party asked an authorisation to hold a protest demonstration in front of the Government’s building on 25 January 2004, in order to express their views on the functioning of the democratic institutions in Moldova. Their request was denied by the municipal council on the ground that such a demonstration would urge the population to a war of aggression, ethnic hatred and public violence. The courts dismissed the subsequent appeals by the applicant party finding that the ban to hold a demonstration was justified as the leaders of the party had burned in the past a Russian flag and a picture of the Russian President, and had distributed leaflets which contained slogans such as “Down with Voronin’s totalitarian regime” and “Down with Putin’s occupation regime”, which in the domestic courts’ view called for a violent overthrow of the constitutional regime in the country.
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