The European Court of Human Rights has found Moldova guilty of violating the right to freedom of assembly and association as well as the right to freedom and security in a case initiated by Hyde Park members, awarding the claimants a total of €16,000, Info-Prim Neo reports. The applicants, Ghenadie Brega, Anatolie Hristea-Stan, Gheorghe Lupusoru and Vasile Costiuc, are all members of Hyde Park, a Chisinau-based non-governmental organization which lobbies for freedom of expression and the right to free assembly. They complained about their arrests during a number of protests at various well-known spots in Chisinau between March 2008 and February 2009. Arrested for insulting the police and resisting arrest, they were released within hours and subsequently acquitted of all charges against them. The applicants submitted video footage of each arrest to show that the accusations against them were false. The ECHR held unanimously that there was a violation of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (freedom of assembly and association), finding that the arrest of the applicants was an encroachment by a public authority on the claimants' right to assembly; as well as of Article Art. 5 § 1 (the right to freedom and security).