MOSCOW, November 4 (RIA Novosti) – David Anderson of the United Kingdom was on Monday appointed an ad hoc judge in a case against Russia’s detention of Greenpeace activists, to be heard by an international maritime tribunal later this week.
Russia seized the Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise, and its multinational crew after several activists tried to scale an offshore oil rig belonging to Russia’s state-run gas giant Gazprom on September 18. The activists were detained on piracy charges and were later charged with hooliganism.
The Dutch government referred the case to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, demanding the release of the ship and its crew and an end to Russian legal proceedings.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow had informed the Netherlands and the international tribunal that it does not accept the arbitration procedure and will not send its representatives to the hearing due on Wednesday.
The ministry said that although Russia had ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1997, which established the tribunal, it refused to acknowledge the settlement procedures and mandatory court rulings.
