The Metropolitan Police has expressed “regret” that six anti-monarchy protesters from the Republic campaign were arrested ahead of the King’s coronation, after deciding no charges will be brought against them
A total of 64 arrests were made on Saturday the police have said
52 of these related to concerns people were going to disrupt the event, and arrests included to prevent a breach of the peace and conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.
As part of the wider policing operation eight arrests were made for other offences, including possession of an offensive weapon, drugs offences, and breaching a sexual harm prevention order,The Met said adding
“Our activity was targeted at those we believed were intent on taking this action. It was not our intention to prevent protest and whilst the vast masses of the crowd were there to celebrate and witness a once in a generation event, it is very clear a number of protests took place across the footprint both before, during and after the event with no police intervention. Any suggestion all protest was prohibited is not correct.”
Graham Smith CEO of Republic,one of the six that were arrested said on twitter
“We have just been told that the police will be taking no further action. This has been a disgraceful episode and we will be speaking to lawyers about taking legal action. I also expect a full inquiry into why they repeatedly lied to us and who authorised the arrests.”
The police added that of the six arrested
“It was not clear at the time that at least one of the group stopped had been engaging with police protest liaison team officers ahead of the event.The Protest Liaison Team were not the arresting officers nor were they present in St Martin’s Lane at the time of the arrest.”
