Leading Republic members were detained by UK police on Saturday as they prepared to demonstrate along the route of King Charles III's coronation, saying, "Not my King", drawing criticism for their actions.
According to Republic, the London Metropolitan Police detained six of the pressure group's organisers and took hundreds of their posters.
Before the group could display the "Not my king" signs or even get as close to Trafalgar Square, Republic Chief Executive Graham Smith was apprehended.
The statement said, "We seized lock-on devices," pointing to recently prohibited tools used by protesters for locking themselves to one another, an item, or the ground.
The group said on Twitter around seven hours after the arrests and after the coronation ceremony, "The whole core team of Republic is still being detained. Is this democracy?"
"This is something you would expect to see in Moscow, not London," the rights organisation's UK director, Yasmine Ahmed, said in a statement, "Peaceful protests allow individuals to hold those in power to account -- something the UK government seems increasingly averse to."
The Met tweeted that four people were held "on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance".
Human Rights Watch, however, immediately condemned the detentions and called the arrests "incredibly alarming".
(Image: Getty, Twitter AP)
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