Mr Gerry Adams told a judge yesterday about the night a "scrum" of RUC men pressed so tightly around him that he was unable to move for about 20 minutes.
"I could not even reach into my pockets to get my mobile phone or a hankie," said the Sinn Fein president.
He was giving evidence at Belfast Recorder's Court in a £10,000 compensation claim against the RUC arising out of a "curfew" on the lower Ormeau Road the night before a contentious Orange march on July 12th, 1996.
Mr Adams's claim is for false imprisonment, trespass to his person and an abuse of authority by police in restraining his movements.
He told Judge Patrick Markey QC that after being hemmed in by police for more than three hours he was eventually allowed through a cordon.
Mr Joe Costello, a member of the Irish Senate, who was in the lower Ormeau as an observer, said that once Mr Adams was allowed through the police cordon he played a calming role.
"Immediately afterwards the tension dissipated and things quietened down," he said.
Opening the case, Mr Arthur Harvey QC said: "Under the cover of the impenetrable mask of security, the police sought to confound the plainest truth, that the action against Mr Adams was capricious, arbitrary, unlawful and was based on hostility to him."
The hearing was adjourned until January 11th and is expected to last another two days.