G7 activists and police engage in a game of cat and mouse

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• Police in Geneva have been playing a game of cat-and-mouse with opponents of the G7 summit.
• The “Critical Mass” demonstration planned for Friday evening had not been authorized.
• Between 100 and 150 activists gathered anyway.
• About 20 of them were arrested.

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Anti-G7 activists played cat and mouse with the police in Geneva on Friday evening. About 20 of them were arrested after running into a police cordon.

“Free us,” the demonstrators chanted. Earlier, between 100 and 150 of them had gathered at Place des Grottes for a so-called Critical Mass bike ride.

The police combed the neighborhood and checked the IDs of all cyclists leaving the area. The participants’ goal was to first disperse and then regroup, cross the Mont-Blanc Bridge, and cycle through the lower districts.

The gathering had been banned

These are the parts of the city that the demonstrators would have liked to ride through on Sunday during the large demonstration against the G7 summit in Evian.

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About 40 cyclists slowed down traffic and rode past the now-barricaded luxury stores. “No No No G7” and “Free Palestine,” they chanted.

During the G7 summit, the Geneva State Council had only authorized the large demonstration on Sunday on the right bank. All other demonstrations that had not been properly registered before June 3, including the Critical Mass on Friday evening, were banned.