All Greenpeace activists on the Arctic Sunrise have been charged with piracy by the Russians.
The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise has been towed into the northern Russian port of Murmansk, and all 30 activists have been charged with piracy by the Russian authorities.
The story is still breaking so is there is a certain amount of variance between the reports coming in.
abc News:
Russia filed piracy charges Tuesday against Greenpeace activists who tried to climb onto an offshore drilling platform in the Arctic owned by the state-controlled gas company Gazprom.
The activists are on a Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise, which was seized last week by the Russian Coast Guard and towed Tuesday into a port near Murmansk.
It was unclear how many of the 30 activists on board face piracy charges, which carry a potential prison sentence of up to 15 years and a fine of 500,000 rubles (about $15,500). The Investigative Committee, Russia’s federal investigative agency, said it would question all those who participated in the protest and detain the “more active” among them.
Radio Free Europe has this to say:
Russian authorities say they plan to harshly prosecute almost 30 Greenpeace activists for protesting Arctic oil activities by gas giant Gazprom.
Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said on September 24 that all activists — regardless of citizenship — will be charged with organized piracy.
If found guilty, they could face up to 15 years in jail.
Russian Coast Guard personnel seized the “Arctic Sunrise” ship with the activists on board last week after they tried to board a Gazprom oil rig.
The BBC:
Russian prosecutors have accused around 30 Greenpeace activists of piracy and say they will prosecute all of them for trying to board an Arctic oil platform.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, modelled on the FBI, will question the activists. Six Britons are among them.
Their ship, the Arctic Sunrise, is being towed to the port of Murmansk.
Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said “all those who assaulted the platform, regardless of nationality, will be prosecuted”.
The Russians are definitely serious about making an example of the ecomentalists from Greenpeace.
In a statement on Tuesday, Greenpeace said its ship had arrived in a fjord near Murmansk accompanied by a tug boat and the Russian Coast Guard vessel Ladoga.
“Greenpeace International lawyers are demanding immediate access to the 30 activists who have been held for over four days without legal or consular assistance. It is still not known whether Russia intends to lay formal charges and Greenpeace has not received any formal contact from the authorities,” it said.
Greenpeace and their international lawyers can demand all they want, what they eventually get, if anything, will be that which the Russians have decided Greenpeace can have, nothing more and nothing less.
This is not Western Europe or the United States where the justice system works in the way Greenpeace is used to, if and when this goes to trial, it will be a show trial with the verdict already known before the trial starts.
The objective of all this is to send a loud and very clear message to the Greens, warmists and those that would dare to interfere with Gazprom’s operations in the Arctic.
Updated 12:21 GMT September 26th 2013.
All 30 activists, 4 Russians and 26 Foreign nationals have been split into groups, all of which will be appearing in 6 different courts in Murmansk today.
All 30 of the activists — four Russians and 26 foreign nationals — are expected to appear in courtrooms on September 26, where judges will consider whether to have them formally remanded in custody or to set them free.
The Russians are most definitely going through the motions to instill fear and uncertainty into the self appointed Green Luddite guardians of the Arctic, the outcome is difficult to predict with Putin saying publicly yesterday that the Greenpeace activists obviously were not pirates, but then he (Putin) supported their detention.
Putin is riding high internationally after humiliating the Boy King Obama over military action in Syria, so really the exact outcome is anyone’s guess, but one thing you can be sure of, the verdict of the Russian courts will send a message to all Green activists that messing with Gazprom operations in the future will carry heavy and serious penalties.
Greenpeace, WWF, FoE and all the other Green and Liberal NGOs have for too long thought their right to protest trumps everyone else’s rights to go about their lawful business, when patently it does not.
Updated 14:11 GMT September 26th 2013.
Latest news is that all activists have been denied bail.
A court in Murmansk, north-west Russia, was continuing to decide on Thursday the fate of the 30 Greenpeace activists arrested during an Arctic drilling protest.
Three of those arrested, including a freelance photographer and a Canadian national, have already been refused bail and remanded in custody.
Filed under: Anthropogenic Global Warming, Church Of Climatology, Climate Change, Fear, Global Warming, Green Lies, Junk Science, ManBearPig, Oh FFS Tagged: Arctic Sunrise, Greenpeace, Murmansk
