Interior ministry wants to grant police right to proactively ban protests

The Ministry of Interior wants to give police additional powers to pre-emptively ban a demonstration or protest that the agency believes may go on to break the law. The ministry also plans to lower the threshold for using water cannons.
It is already possible to break up a meeting that incites a crime, hatred, violence, discrimination, or is directed against the independence of Estonia. But it is much more difficult to ban a public event before it takes place – especially if the permit application does not hint at any wrongdoing.
"There may be indications that forbidden elements will be used at the meeting, but today there is no very clear ban in the law," Indrek Link, adviser of the law enforcement and criminal policy department at the Ministry of the Interior, told ERR.
"Perhaps the police need to register the report, the meeting can take place, and during the meeting they need to check whether there are any elements of a prohibited meeting and then react," continued Link. "Obviously, if this information is available beforehand, it would make sense to react proactively."
In a newly published development plan for a draft law, the Ministry of the Interior proposes to give police additional powers to ban a public meeting in advance.
Exactly how this could be carried out is not clear.
"In particular, we are talking about those cases where, based on the organizer, based on meetings previously organized by them, or based on other information, it is known that this could happen," Link explained.
But people who intend to break the law rarely say so in advance. How can the police ban a meeting if its organizer publicly states that no one will break the law?
"When the police make a decision, they must justify it," Link replied, adding the police's decision can be contested in court.
Ministry: Disbanding worse than banning
The document says that directing more police officers to break up prohibited meetings would also help alleviate the problem.
"However, this means that the mindset of the meeting already influences the environment around it. Also, dispersal at the place of the meeting will inevitably have a more negative connotation than a written ban," the ministry adds.
There are no examples listed in the draft that suggest the new rule could have helped in a previous situation.
However, Link gave the example of Russia's Victory Day on May 9, 2022, when the police banned gatherings based on a law in force at the time. Then there was help from a reference to the imminent risk to human health.
"If one of the parties comes there waving the symbols of the aggressor state, a conflict may ensue, which in turn may escalate into a larger confrontation, which may result in bodily injury, property damage and so on," Link recalled the discussion two years ago. "And out of this came a ruling that the police have a basis for banning the meeting."
Link could not think of a situation where a meeting that should have been banned still took place and caused damage.
Ministry wants to ban public celebration of USSR's anniversaries
The Ministry of the Interior also suggested expanding the list of banned meetings.
It suggested gatherings where symbols linked to aggression, genocide, war crimes, or those marking aggressor countries' anniversaries.
The draft lists the anniversaries of the Soviet Army on February 23, Victory Day on May 9, and the so-called liberation of Tallinn on September 22.
However, Link stressed that specific dates should not be written into the law.
"On the other hand, if, from the notice of the meeting and the organizer of the meeting, it can be understood that it is a meeting specifically aimed at celebrating the above-mentioned anniversaries, a discretionary decision would be taken to prohibit the holding of the meeting," Link said.
He also added that some parts of the development plan may not reach the final draft.
Water cannon threshold would be lower
Among other proposed changes, includes a plan to lower the threshold for the use of water cannons.
At the moment it is only possible to use a water cannon against a crowd if the danger cannot be controlled by any other means of direct coercion, except a firearm.
"The next step up from the use of a water cannon would be, under current law, the use of rubber bullets and a firearm," the ministry notes and emphasizes that currently water cannons can only be used to repel a "serious threat".
"However, the use of a water cannon may also be necessary and proportionate to deal with a 'significant threat' and to eliminate the disorder giving rise to that threat, in order to prevent a 'serious threat' situation from arising at the earliest possible stage," the document states.
The ministry suggests further defining the terms "serious threat" and "significant threat".
According to the Law Enforcement Act, a "serious threat" is when a person's life, physical integrity, physical freedom, or high-value property are at risk. High-value property benefits are those that exceed the minimum wage by a hundred times, i.e. they are greater than €82,000 according to current calculations.
A "significant threat" is when a person's health or property of significant value is at risk. Property benefits of significant value are those that exceed the minimum wage by ten times, i.e. are greater than €8,200 according to current calculations.
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Editor: Helen Wright