Russia to File Piracy Charges Against Greenpeace

[Turborama]

Source: AP Via ABC

MURMANSK, Russia September 24, 2013
By ALEXANDER ROSLYAKOV and LYNN BERRY

Russian investigators say they will file piracy charges against Greenpeace activists who tried to climb onto an offshore drilling platform in the Arctic owned by the state-controlled gas company Gazprom.

The activists are on a Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise, which was seized last week by the Russian Coast Guard and towed Tuesday into a port near Murmansk.

It was unclear how many of the 30 activists from 18 countries face piracy charges, which carry a potential prison sentence of up to 15 years and a fine of 500,000 rubles (about $15,500). The Investigative Committee, Russia's federal investigative agency, said Tuesday it would question all those who participated in the protest and detain the "more active" among them.

Two activists tried to climb onto the Prirazlomnaya platform on Thursday and others assisted from small inflatable boats. The Greenpeace protest was aimed at calling attention to the environmental risks of drilling for oil in Arctic waters.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russia-files-piracy-charges-greenpeace-20353615

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Russia accuses Greenpeace crew of 'piracy' in Arctic



In a statement on Tuesday, Greenpeace said its ship had arrived in a fjord near Murmansk accompanied by a tug boat and the Russian Coast Guard vessel Ladoga.

"Greenpeace International lawyers are demanding immediate access to the 30 activists who have been held for over four days without legal or consular assistance. It is still not known whether Russia intends to lay formal charges and Greenpeace has not received any formal contact from the authorities," it said.

The environmental organisation said its protest against "dangerous Arctic oil drilling" was peaceful and in line with its "strong principles".

"Our activists did nothing to warrant the reaction we've seen from the Russian authorities," it said.

The campaigners on the ship are from 18 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, New Zealand, Russia, the UK and the US, Greenpeace said.

More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24222392

Arctic Sunrise held in Russia
On September 18, the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise took peaceful action at Gazprom’s Prirazlomnaya platform to stop it from producing the world’s first oil from icy Arctic waters.

The Russian Coast Guard reacted strongly: after firing warning shots and detaining two activists under armed guard, they then seized the ship and began to tow it to the port of Murmansk.

- A full timeline of events is here.

- Over the course of the last few days, many accusations and rumours have surfaced.

Here, Greenpeace attempts to clear up the confusion and set the record straight.

- Send a letter to the Russian Embassy to free our activists and end Arctic drilling for good.

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/

[24601]

1. Dammit Snowden, you weren't supposed to tell they were on a SIGINT mission.

[Cryptoad]

4. Maybe the Russians

will award the Green Peace ship to Comrade Snowden to use as his personal yacht !

[Sunlei]

2. pirates without weapons :(

[geek tragedy]

3. Next up: Russia finds evidence Greenpeace used chemical weapons in Syria nt

[JustAnotherGen]

5. n/t

[Nuclear Unicorn]

7. I chortled.

[davidpdx]

6. The article on Yahoo pretty much made it sound like the Russians were inferring they were terrorists

Somebody run over to RT to get the Kremlin's version.

[Turborama]

10. Here it is...

Russia launches piracy case over Greenpeace oil rig ‘attack’, to prosecute ‘regardless of nationality’

=snip=

Russia’s Investigative Committee said on Tuesday that it will investigate the incident as a case of piracy committed by an organized group. The crime carries a prison term of up to 15 years, but the prosecution would have to prove that the activists were trying to take over property under threat of violence for the possible charges to hold.

Still, spokesman for the committee Vladimir Markin said the investigators have good reasons for their decision to pursue the charge.

“When you have a foreign vessel full of electronic equipment of unclear purpose, and a group of persons claiming to be members of an environmental organization attempt to no less than storm an oil rig, you may have legitimate doubts about their goals,” he suggested.

“One can hardly believe that the so-called activists didn’t know that the rig is a potentially hazardous facility, where unsanctioned actions may result in a disaster.”

http://rt.com/news/greenpeace-oil-criminal-piracy-273/

Strange, seeing as Putin's very same mouthpiece is quoting Putin as saying that they are “obviously not pirates” (see below reply).

Also, I saw the original version of this article and it quoted Russia's piracy laws and more reasons why Russia thinks they are "pirates". Now it is impossible to find a webcache of the original article and the only one that remains is the one that is linked to above.

On edit, I remember the Russian law being quoted verbatim where this altered version is now (in bold): "The crime carries a prison term of up to 15 years, but the prosecution would have to prove that the activists were trying to take over property under threat of violence for the possible charges to hold."

[dipsydoodle]

12. To find what you're looking for,

if you want to bother, then start here http://rt.com/news/line/2013-09-25/ and go back a day at at time by editing the address bar to 24, 23 etc. The key is to find the exact headline wording as opposed to subject they used that day and then search that specific wording prefixed by RT in google whatever.

There are no links on those pages which are just their equivalent of grouped LBN headlines for that day and which stay there forever for that day.

Exactly the same issue applies to the BBC and the Guardian when they change a headline and / or narrataive whilst maintaining the same address / subject name. However - in their cases the previous unedited narratives are far less easy to find.

There is another way of doing the above using http://inagist.com/ but it doesn't come to mind at present exactly to how to back track other than googling a headline prefixed by inagist.com

[dipsydoodle]

8. Putin: Greenpeace activists not pirates, but they violated intl law

The Greenpeace activists who boarded a Russian oil rig are “obviously not pirates,” says President Vladimir Putin. However, technically they did try to take the rig over, thus violating international law.

The Russian president was referring to an incident last week in which a group of environmental activists scaled an oil rig in protest against the danger they claimed oil extraction poses.

Russian border guards detained them and their vessel. Russia’s Investigative Committee has since launched a piracy case against the protesters.

“Anything could have happened. An operator error or a technical malfunction. There was a danger to lives and health of people. Are such publicity stunts really worth the possible serious consequences they may bring?” Putin told members of an international Arctic forum in Russia.

http://rt.com/news/putin-greenpeace-pirates-arctic-323/

[Lenomsky]

9. E-Mail from Greenpeace to me ..

Hi

It’s been 100 hours since we heard from Alex. A colleague and a friend, is one of 30 people being held prisoner aboard the Arctic Sunrise. Alex was one of the three activists who locked themselves in the communications room to get the message out, right before armed forces broke in and cut our contact with the ship.

Russian media have reported that the Arctic Sunrise will be towed into the port of Murmansk on Tuesday. The activists have not been formally charged with anything yet. Let's use these last few critical hours to pressure the Russian authorities to release Alex and the 29 others.

Forward this link to your friends and pressure the Russian embassy to release our activists. More than 300,000 letters have been sent already, and every message counts.

http://www.greenpeace.org/freeouractivists

Seizing our ship in international waters is illegal. And the detention of peaceful protestors without charge is wrong. But it’s not too late for the Russian authorities to set them free.

Instead of protecting Arctic oil drillers, governments around the world should be protecting us from the threat that companies like Gazprom and Shell pose to us all.

Alex risked her liberty for all of us, now it’s time for us to stand up for her and help free the Arctic 30.

Ian and the friends and family at Greenpeace

[melm00se]

13. Piracy definitions

Russian Federation:

Article 227. Piracy
1. Assault on a sea-going ship or a river boat with the aim of capturing other people's
property, committed with the use of violence or with the threat of its use, Shall be punishable by deprivation of liberty for a term of five to ten years.
2. The same act committed with the use of arms or objects used as arms,
Shall be punishable by deprivation of liberty for a term of eight to twelve years, with or without a fine in an amount of up to 500 thousand roubles or in the amount of the wage or salary, or any other income of the convicted person for a period of up to three years.
3. Acts provided for in the first or second part of this Article, if they have been committed by an organised group or have entailed, by negligence, the death of a person, or any other grave consequences,
Shall be punishable by deprivation of liberty for a term of ten to fifteen years, with or without a fine in an amount of up to 500 thousand roubles, or in the amount of the wage or salary, or any other income of the convicted person for a period of up to three years

United Nations

Article 101

Definition of piracy

Piracy consists of any of the following acts:

(a) any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed:

(i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft;

(ii) against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State;

(b) any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft;

(c) any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described in subparagraph (a) or (b).

[dipsydoodle]

15. Russian court to rule over Greenpeace activists

MOSCOW (AP) -- A Russian court is expected to rule in the case of 30 Greenpeace activists apprehended after they tried to scale an offshore oil platform last week.

>

The court is expected to rule Thursday whether to dismiss the case and release the activists or keep them in jail pending the probe. Investigators said they are seeking the activists' arrest.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_RUSSIA_GREENPEACE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-09-26-03-07-23