British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Tuesday that police were acting "independently" from the government after heavy criticism over the arrest of anti-monarchy activists on the sidelines of the coronation of Charles III.
Early Saturday morning, six members of the anti-monarchy Republic group, including leader Graham Smith, were arrested in London on their way to Trafalgar Square to protest at the King's Passage.
'Premeditated' arrests
They were released on Saturday night after much criticism. The latter were revived by the "regrets" expressed by the police about this case Monday night, Graham Smith believing that these arrests had been "premeditated".
As the controversy swells, Rishi Sunak said Tuesday that "people have of course the right to protest freely and peacefully, but the public must also be able to go about their daily lives without facing serious disruption." The police are "rightly, operationally independent of the government," he added. "It would not be right for me to interfere in their operational decisions.
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On Monday night, Scotland Yard said it "regretted" that the six anti-monarchy protesters had not been able to protest. No proceedings will be brought against them. Without apologizing, the London police explained that they had suspected them of "being equipped to chain themselves" but that the investigation had ultimately not been able to prove such an intention.
Under a law that came into force on Wednesday, criticized all the way to the UN, British police can arrest people in possession of equipment that could be used to chain themselves on public roads, a protest and blocking technique regularly used by climate activists in the United Kingdom.
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Conceding that it was "regrettable" that those arrested were denied protests, Police Chief Mark Rowley defended his troops who acted "in this unique operational context" on coronation day. "The decision to stop us and obstruct our protest was premeditated," Graham Smith told Sky News.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has written to London's police chief asking for an internal investigation into the arrests. In total, London police made 64 arrests on the day of the king's coronation, mostly environmental activists.