HAMBURG/LONDON (NNA) – More than two million people around the world have so far contacted Russian embassies to demand the release of the activists and crew on board the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, the environmental organisation Greenpeace says on its website. They were detained for peacefully protesting against oil drilling in the Arctic by the Russian energy giant Gazprom.

The detainees were recently moved to St Petersburg from Murmansk, where they had been held since their arrest.

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg is currently dealing with the case in an action brought by The Netherlands against Russia for illegally detaining the vessel and crew. The Greenpeace ship sails under the Dutch flag. Politicians in the European Parliament and other European legislatures have also spoken out in support of the environmental activists who have now been held for more than 50 days.

Laureates of the Right Livelihood Award, otherwise known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”, and members of the World Future Council at the weekend described the protest of the so-called Arctic 30 as an “exemplary act of civil disobedience” and called for their immediate release. And eleven winners of the Nobel Peace Prize – including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu – earlier expressed their support for the Arctic 30 in a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Greenpeace has announced another global day of action for tomorrow. The Russian court will decide on 17 November whether it will “release our friends or keep them in prison on remand”, the organisation said. Little time remained “to bring the Arctic 30 to the attention of the world, and raise our voices together to free them.”

The Arctic Sunrise set sail in September for the Pechora Sea to protest against oil drilling by Gazprom. On 18 September, activists from the Arctic Sunrise headed towards the oil platform in inflatables with the aim of establishing themselves on the outside structure to protest against imminent drilling. Russian coastguard agents, who quickly arrived, respond by firing warning shots from automatic weapons and arresting the two Greenpeace activists who had scaled the outside of the rig. Next day, Russian forces boarded the Arctic Sunrise while it was in international waters and arrested all on board.

Holding the ship and its crew was in violation of international law, René Lefeber from the Dutch foreign ministry told the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea last week. Furthermore, the arrest and detention of the persons on board the Arctic Sunrise was not only a breach of the law of the sea, but also of international human rights law. The Russian agents should not have boarded the Greenpeace vessel in the first place. Russia had violated the freedom of navigation on the high seas as well as the fundamental rights of the crew members, The Netherlands argued.

Russian authorities at first charged the 30 activists with piracy but later said they would drop those charges and replace them with hooliganism. It appears, however, that the piracy charges have not formally been dropped. Piracy carries a sentence of up to 15 years and hooliganism up to seven years

Russia argues that the activists had infringed the 500-metre safety zone around the oil platform. The Russian government has refused to send a representative to the hearing in Hamburg. A ruling from the tribunal is expected on 22 November. Russia has already announced that it will not recognise the judgement because in its view the court does not have jurisdiction. The Dutch government has called on the court to issue a clear ruling to excert further pressure on Russia.

“The activists are not pirates but committed people who want to protect the Arctic from ruthless exploitation by Gazprom,” said Rebecca Harms, co-president of The Greens/European Free alliance group in the European Parliament, on her website. Russia had to respect freedom of assembly just as much as the right to draw attention to environmental risks. “We need their commitment and must not leave the activists to their fate,” the MEP emphasised.

“The ice is retreating and oil companies are moving north to drill for the same stuff that's driving that melting in the first place,” Greenpeace writes. As a result they were endangering the fragile ecosystem in the Arctic and the animals that live there.

The Artctic 30 are shown on the Greenpeace website all with their portraits. The environmental organisation also suggests ways of supporting them (see link below).

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Item: 131115-01DE Date: 15 November 2013

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