GONG and 22 other civil society organisations on Wednesday appealed to the Government to fully reopen St Mark's Square, the seat of Government and Parliament, to the public.

The square was partly closed to the public following an attack by a lone gunman on the Government building on 12 October 2022, and the metal fences put up to deter further attacks make it difficult for people to gather in the square.

GONG said in a press release that the public never received an adequate explanation of the scale and nature of the risk of new attacks on the buildings housing Government, Parliament and Constitutional Court, indicated in a security assessment by the Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA).

In February this year, after GONG asked SOA whether a new security assessment had been made, SOA said it had made a new security assessment in November 2022, two years after the first one. Before that, the public was not aware of the second assessment.

SOA did not reveal details of its new assessment, saying only that it was a classified report that was submitted to the Ministry of the Interior, and the Ministry did not even acknowledge the existence of the new security assessment, GONG said.

Although citizens can hold protest rallies in St Mark’s Square, they are discouraged by the limited space they can use for gathering, namely up to 400 square metres. That’s why GONG believes that the present security regime excessively restricts freedom of assembly and movement.