Prague court says City Hall was wrong to ban radar protest

A Prague court ruled on Tuesday that the City Hall was wrong to ban a protest march against the possible deployment of a US radar base in the Czech Republic at the end of January. The court said that the reasons cited by the City Hall - namely a possible disruption of traffic and concerns for the protesters' safety - were flimsy and inadequate. The march went ahead despite the ban; police had started investigating it as an illegally held event, but will now have to close the case. The City Hall's decision to ban the event was criticized by the opposition Social Democrats and the Communists.