Mr Gerard Rice, spokesman for the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community, was cheered by supporters as he left court in Belfast yesterday after being charged with obstructing a loyalist parade.
Mr Rice (37) and eight other men appeared at Belfast Magistrates' Court in connection with disturbances during last Saturday's Apprentice Boys of Derry march on Belfast's Ormeau Road.
Police said 19 officers were among the injured as they tried to remove the sit-down protesters ahead of the controversial "feeder" parade, before the major event in Derry.
Mr Rice, whose address was given as c/o Ormeau Road, was charged with disorderly behaviour and hindering the free passage of the parade by standing on the Ormeau Road.
A detective told the court that when Mr Rice was charged he replied: "To be disorderly for making a request for civil rights is a nonsense."
Mr Joe McVeigh, the solicitor who appeared for five of the other defendants, told the magistrate: "Each of them formally complains at the brutal manner of the police in the way they forced this parade through the Ormeau Road in contravention of their most basic human rights."
The other defendants are: Mr Eugene Trainor (46); Mr Edward McGinn (26), both Springfield Road; Mr Thomas Brown (40), of Cavanmore Gardens; Mr Alexander McCrory (37) and his brother, Gerard (27), both of Dermott Hill Road, all west Belfast; Mr Anthony Griffiths (37), of Antigua Gardens, Ardoyne; Mr Thomas O'Halloran (31), of Cooke Court, and Mr Richard Pelan (32), of Rutland Street.
They were all charged with hindering the parade by either sitting or kneeling on the Ormeau Road. The McCrory brothers were also charged with assaulting police officers and Mr McGinn with disorderly behaviour.
All nine defendants were remanded on bail until October 15th.
As they emerged from the court they were greeted by cheers from demonstrators carrying placards calling for the RUC to be disbanded.