30 Greenpeace activists, journalists charged with piracy

MOSCOW, Russia — Russian investigators said Thursday, October 3, that they had charged all 30 crew members of Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise ship with piracy after they staged a protest on a state-owned oil platform.

“All 30 participants in the criminal case have been charged over the attack on the Prirazlomnaya platform,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

A court in the northern city of Murmansk last week detained the crew members for two months pending an investigation into their September 18 protest on the oil platform owned by energy giant Gazprom.

The first fourteen activists were charged with piracy on Wednesday and the rest were indicted Thursday.

Piracy by an organised group carries a sentence of between 10 and 15 years in prison in Russia.

Investigators have accused the crew members, who come from 18 different countries including Britain, Canada, Denmark and the United States, of trying to seize property by force after several scaled the oil platform.

Among those charged are two freelance journalists from Britain and Russia who were making video recordings and taking photographs on the Greenpeace ship.

The Investigative Committee said Thursday that all the crew members deny their guilt and that they are all currently refusing to testify. — Rappler.com