MOSCOW, November 25 (RIA Novosti) – All but one of the Greenpeace ship crewmembers detained in Russia over an Arctic Sea protest have left jail pending trial after activist Phil Ball was released on bail Monday afternoon.
Ball, a 42-year-old environmentalist from the UK, was the 29th member of what Greenpeace has dubbed the “Arctic 30” to walk free from pre-trial detention in St. Petersburg.
The international environmental organization, which paid 2 million rubles ($61,500) per person to bail the group out of prison, celebrated their release in a press release on its website, but expressed disappointment that Australian activist Colin Russell remained behind bars.
A Russian court ordered Russell, whose hearing last week was the first of all the detained crew members, to stay in prison until February 24.
Greenpeace has said it is unclear why only Russell was singled out to remain in jail, but said Monday that his next bail appeal will be heard Thursday in St. Petersburg.
Russian police seized Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise icebreaker and detained the 28 activists and two journalists on board in September, after several of the activists attempted to scale an Arctic Sea oil platform owned by an affiliate of Russian energy giant Gazprom in protest against offshore drilling in the environmentally fragile area.
The group was initially charged with piracy, but investigators later downgraded the charges to hooliganism, which is punishable by a maximum sentence of seven years in jail.
An international maritime tribunal ordered Russia last week to release the Arctic Sunrise, which is currently moored in the Russian port of Murmansk, and all 30 detainees on bond of 3.6 million euros ($4.8 million).
Kremlin officials promptly said Russia would not comply with the ruling, and that the tribunal had no jurisdiction in the case.
