Posted on 09/26/2013 10:08:06 AM PDT by bkopto
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.
Russian prosecutors have accused the activists of piracy as part of an organised group, an offence that carries a maximum 15-year jail term. The activists were on board Greenpeace's boat the Arctic Sunrise and were protesting against drilling at an oil rig off Russia's northern shores.
Greenpeace has dismissed the charges as absurd, saying it has a long history of nonviolent protest and it is clear that there was no intent of piracy or terrorism in the actions of its activists.
The court said Denis Sinyakov, a photographer who formerly worked for the Reuters news agency, was a flight risk as he had frequently travelled abroad. He was remanded in custody for two months, and led out of the courtroom wearing handcuffs. Roman Dolgov, a marine pollution expert from Greenpeace, was also denied bail, so was Canadian Paul Ruzycki.
Decisions in the cases of other foreign activists on board the ship, who come from 18 different countries, are expected during the course of Thursday afternoon. A British consular official is in Murmansk attempting to offer support to the six Britons among the arrested activists.
SNIP
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, weighed in to the debate on Wednesday. He said it was obvious that the activists were not pirates, "but formally they were trying to seize this platform. It is evident that those people violated international law."
Despite Putin's words, prosecutors have pressed ahead with the piracy charges.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
D*mn, I’m liking Putin more and more.
If he arrests and imprisons the Gore man/boy/thing, I’ll vote for him for president.
(Really, it’ll be much much better than the Obamadork.)
Hang’em from the yardarm.
Greenpeace stated they should be allowed to disrupt anyone’s commercial business for IDEOLOGICAL REASONS without suffering consequences.
You can bet they would have taken over the rig if they could..put em in jail...
Guess a public hanging is a bit overboard......
hope they freeze their soft little fannies off.....should have been stopped a long time ago....
Yup!
They should put Quad 50’s (or 14.5 MM if they wanna buy Ruskie)on their platforms.
Shoot them.
Good for the Russians. Send the Greenpeace idiots to Siberia to work in the mines. It will be the first useful work any of them will have ever done in their miserable lives. Cut their ship up and sell the scrap or the Russi9an Navy can expend it as a target.
The idiots deserve whatever they get.
These enviro nut jobs are learning the hard way that the Russians won’t put up with these antics like the Japanese have.
Heh. Hard heads have to feel. These psychos deserve what they get.
Yeah but, a group hug fest with polar bears seems appropriate though. I mean, I've seen those Coca-Cola ads and those darn bears are cute and friendly. Tim Treadwell sends his regards.
“saying it has a long history of nonviolent protest “
B.S. Greenpeace is GreenTerror. They are pirates and should have been left floating in the ocean.
I guess they are surprised that not every country is as accommodating as the USA. Send them to the Gulag in Siberia so that they can see the land they are trying to preserve.
The limp-wristed greens will learn a lesson, and go back to harassing US, Japanese, Swedish or Dutch vessels.
Putin knows well that he can say whatever he wants said, and have the court do whatever he wants done.
It can be believed that Greenpeace didn't plan to take ownership of the place and have the crew walk the plank. However technically they attempted boarding of a ship at sea against wishes of the crew in charge. If they were allowed to proceed, they could have attacked the crew or destroyed the equipment. When your ship is boarded by strangers you do not wait until they start killing to call them pirates. Greenpeace specializes in sabotage, not in killing, but that's not an excuse.
The crime has also occurred inside the exclusive economic zone of Russia, and within 3 miles around the platform that are closed to ship traffic without permission (for obvious safety reasons.) Greenpeace says they only used unflatables to get there. Just like the USS Cole bombers did. Putin already mentioned Kenya terrorists, and that makes plenty of sense. These days you do not allow hostile strangers closer than the range of effective fire.
I think Russia will confiscate the ship and slap everyone with some symbolic jail term (to the time served.) This will send a message to Greenpeace: "If you want to lose more ships, send them over. Our Coast Guard is always ready for a training exercise. If not, go and mess with Norway or any other peace-loving euro-pacifist country that will not even think of repelling you."
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