Arctic Sunrise, "Pirate" ship

Greenpeace activists, detained by the Gazprom drill platform, were officially accused of piracy

In Murmansk, Greenpeace activists are officially charged with piracy. They provide for punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to 15 years.

Greenpeace lawyers call accusations absurd. The RS correspondent in Murmansk Maxim Zharavin said that the accusations seemed to be written under a carbon copy, and also noted that, despite the wide international resonance, local politicians and public organizations are practically not interested in this story. The accusations were charged as on the conveyor: for each activist it was spent for no more than a few minutes. Among the accused is the photographer Denis Sinyakov, who covered the Greenpeace campaign.

Recall that on September 18, a group of activists approached the Arctic Sunrise vessel to the drilling platform "Prirazlomnaya" and tried to hang out a banner on it - in protest against oil production in the Arctic. Investigators regarded these actions as an attempt to capture the platform. By the decision of the Leninsky District Court of Murmansk, all detainees were arrested for two months. Lawyers of activists have already filed an appeal to this decision. Greenpeace lawyers intend to appeal the charges on Wednesday in the coming days.

The press service of Greenpeace said that the conditions for the detention of arrested in the Murmansk pre-trial detention center are not caused by special complaints-especially after heating was included in Murmansk: before that, activists complained that it was cold in the cells. The Finnish activist Sini Saarela, who, due to thyroid disease, should regularly take medications, allowed to convey the necessary drugs to the chamber.

It is surprising that the shares in support of the arrested "Greenpeisers" are held in a variety of cities, from Moscow to Berlin, but in Murmansk itself the civil community does not show much activity. The public environmental organization "Nature and Youth" organized a series of single pickets near the FSB Office on the Disagreement Day, and this was limited. However, Greenpeace cares about the arrested, they are visited, they are provided with all kinds of legal support.

Meanwhile, the detained ship Arctic Sunrise is located in the Kola Bay, employees of the Investigative Committee work on it, sees equipment and documents. Employees of Greenpeace claim that we are talking about ordinary ship equipment, and are surprised by the statements of the authorities that it should be aimed at some kind of examination.

Local ships have a problem: there are a lot of defendants, and there are few premises. The previous meeting was held simultaneously by six judges in six rooms. The next meetings will be held in the regional court, there are even fewer premises.

Anton Beneslavsky’s environmental lawyer, lawyer of the Greenpeace-Russia, indicates the illegality of piracy accusations, which are arrested by the arrested members of the Arctic Sunrise . According to him, Greenpeace has all the necessary resources in order to provide professional legal protection to all participants in the rally at the Prazrazlomnaya drill platform.

- "Greenpeace" does not recognize the legality of the charges already brought by some activists of your organization of piracy. On what basis?

- Our position is based on a clear understanding of the norms of international marine law and criminal law of Russia. In the actions of the activists, there was not a single sign of the composition of the crimes provided for in Article 227 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - "Piracy". That is, there was no attack on the ship, there was no attack at all, violence was not applied, there was no threat of violence, there was no purpose of taking possession of other people's property. The only goal was to attract attention to the risky and talented idea of Gazprom - to drill in the Arctic. Over the past year of communication with Gazprom, we have not seen attempts on this topic on this topic, only a desire to start this risky activity on their part. Therefore, a peaceful, non -violent action was undertaken. Unfortunately, the authorities reacted to her completely inadequately, presenting completely absurd and ridiculous accusations that are not based on evidence. That is, in fact, in the "evidence" on which the prosecution is based, there are no indications of the guilt of specific persons. This is not evidence in understanding criminal law and process.

- Vladimir Putin commented on the situation with the Greenpeisers, saying that, "strictly speaking, this is not piracy." It was amazing for you as a lawyer that the charges of piracy were still being brought?

- I have not been surprised for a long time when the Russian investigation or justice authorities make gross mistakes. I hope that these are only mistakes associated with some subjective factors, and there is no intent in this. But, nevertheless, the degree of incompetence did not surprise me.

- Within a few days, courts about the preventive measure for 30 detained activists of Greenpeace were going on. Now one after another is charged. Do you expect all 30 will be accused of piracy?

- I am not ready to comment on it, because I am completely unable to predict the logic of those people who are now charging. In my logic, their actions do not fit. They do not fit in my knowledge of criminal law.

- Let's go back to the Greenpeace protest campaign on September 18. You said that she was non -violent in nature, but people tried to climb the platform. From a legal point of view, they violated some norms of legislation and if so, which?

- The only thing that could be discussed under certain conditions is to discuss with a big stretch, to discuss, and not to say definitely what exactly was committed is the lack of view of the border group. Here, perhaps, under certain conditions, one could talk about an administrative offense, which is punished much weaker than criminal offenses, under Article 19.4 “IMPORTANT OF THE ACTIVITY OF ACTIONS”. And then, I want to note that this is a controversial issue, because the jurisdiction of the border service in this context is, let's say, fuzzy. I am not in the offensive of those articles of the Criminal Code or the Administrative Code that would violate people on board. Moreover, I want to note that there was no goal, there was no attempt to penetrate the platform itself. That is, people fixed the platform outside, on board. I can’t name the articles that they violated at the same time. But in any case, we are not talking about any criminal offense.

- How do you assess the reaction of those countries whose activists were detained?

- I am not a diplomat, so it’s hard for me to evaluate the actions of diplomatic workers. There are some of its own rules. Naturally, I am a person who is both professionally and emotionally interested in triumphing justice and our activists were released. Therefore, it will definitely seem to me that foreign diplomats are not doing everything they could. Although, perhaps, I am addicted to this.

- Does Greenpeace have a sufficient number of lawyers to provide full legal protection for all 30 arrested activists?

- Yes. We attract lawyers, because we cannot, according to the law, in the staff of lawyers.