MOSCOW, November 18 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian court ruled Monday to grant bail to three people out of the Greenpeace group that was detained in September for mounting a protest against oil drilling in the Arctic Sea.
A judge at Kalininsky District Court in St. Petersburg set the bail for freelance photographer Denis Sinyakov, who was on an assignment to cover the Greenpeace protest in the Arctic, and Yekaterina Zaspa, who was ship doctor for the environmental organization’s Arctic Sunrise icebreaker, at 2 million rubles ($61,500) per person. Activist Andrei Allakhverdov was also granted bail, Greenpeace tweeted late Monday.
A group of 28 Greenpeace activists and two reporters were initially charged with piracy for attempting to climb aboard an Arctic Sea oil platform owned by an affiliate of state-run energy giant Gazprom, but those charges were later downgraded to hooliganism, an offense punishable by up to seven years in jail.
The three people ordered to be released on bail, who are all Russian, are expected to be freed as soon as the money is transferred, which a Greenpeace spokeswoman said could take one or two days.
Sinyakov’s arrest has been condemned by Russia’s Journalists’ Union and some prominent Russian media outlets, as well as international media freedom non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders.
Another court in the northern city of St. Petersburg earlier in the day prolonged until February 24 the arrest of crew member Colin Russell, an Australian citizen.
Courts are to rule in the coming days on whether to keep the other detainees in pretrial detention or release them on bail as the international campaign for their freedom continues to gain momentum.
Updated throughout the day.
