MOSCOW/MURMANSK, November 5 (RIA Novosti) – Activists and journalists detained aboard Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise icebreaker remain in detention in the Arctic city of Murmansk, despite a decision being made to take them to St. Petersburg, a defense lawyer said Tuesday.
Greenpeace had said in a statement last Friday that the 28 activists and two reporters detained during a protest at a Russian state-owned oil rig in Arctic waters in September were to be be transferred from Murmansk to St. Petersburg, about 1,080 kilometers (650 miles) to the south.
“All the detainees are still in Murmansk, although it was agreed in principle that they are to be taken to St. Petersburg,” Greenpeace lawyer Mikhail Kreindlin said.
Greenpeace spokeswoman Maria Favorskaya said the detainees met with their lawyers in Murmansk on Tuesday morning.
“They [the lawyers] were not notified about the transfer of activists to other detention facilities, but similar information is being provided by various unofficial sources who talk about different [possible] dates,” she said.
Murmansk Region penitentiary authorities have declined to comment.
The Arctic Sunrise crew was initially charged with piracy after some of them tried to scale an offshore oil rig belonging to gas giant Gazprom.
The Investigative Committee later downgraded the piracy charges, punishable by a jail term of up to 15 years, to a lesser charge of hooliganism.
The maximum punishment for hooliganism is seven years.
