UN tribunal sides with Arctic Sunrise activists

Deutsche Welle, 23 November 2013

An international maritime court has called for the immediate release of the Arctic Sunrise activists and their vessel. The verdict was clear - but Russia's reaction to it remains to be seen.

The second session of the UN's International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea was held on Friday (22.11.2013) in Hamburg, following an appeal from the Netherlands against the detention of the Arctic Sunrise vessel and the 30 Greenpeace activists on board the ship. The activists had staged a protest at an oil rig owned by Russian oil giant Gazprom in mid September, before being arrested by Russian police.

The court proceedings didn't take long. Judge Shunji Yanai, president of the tribunal, read out the verdict in 35 minutes, pausing only to take a few sips of water. As he read, the four representatives from the Dutch Foreign Ministry, which had filed the appeal against the Russian Federation, exchanged glances several times and nodded in agreement.

Handshakes and hugs followed: the tribunal had met Dutch demands by calling on Russian authorities to immediately free the Arctic Sunrise vessel and all the detained activists in exchange for a 3.6 million euro ($4.9 million) bond from the Netherlands.

The Greenpeace activists face

charges of hooliganism

Not quite unanimous

The tribunal ruled that as soon as the Hague pays the agreed bail in the form of a performance bond, Russian authorities are legally bound to allow the vessel - which sailed under the Dutch flag - as well as the detained Greenpeace activists to leave Russian territory. The ruling was almost unanimous, with 19 out of 21 judges supporting it. Only two judges opposed the motion: the representatives from Russia and Ukraine.

The ruling stated that the Dutch arguments had been taken into consideration. During the case's first hearing, which took place on November 6, the Dutch side asserted, among other things, that the actions of the Russian authorities are contrary to international law and are a violation of human rights. Dutch representatives also stated that the long-term presence of the Arctic Sunrise - a fairly old icebreaker - in Russia's Arctic port of Murmansk without the necessary maintenance could pose a danger to the environment.

Following their protest on September 18 at an oil rig in the Barents Sea, the Greenpeace activists have spent two months in Russian pre-trial detention centers. The environmentalists, who claim their actions were peaceful, face charges of "hooliganism." According to Russian law, they could serve up to seven years in prison.

A chance for Russian authorities

Liesbeth Lijnzaad, a legal adviser for the Dutch Foreign Ministry, told journalists that the Hague would need some time to carefully study the verdict of the tribunal. "It is a statement that we need to reflect on, and we need to study it further and determine how to proceed with it. I think it's also important to note that it's quite clear that the decision of the court is binding on both parties of this case," she said.

Demonstrators in Russia and many other countries protested in
solidarity with the activists

Many observers present in the courtroom noted that adhering to the tribunal's demands would be a chance for the Russian authorities to show - with actions rather than with words - that abiding by international law is something they value.

Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International, called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to allow the stipulations of the tribunal to be carried out. "Given that [Putin] has always argued the importance of international law, he must now do whatever he can to ensure that there will be no further delays in our colleagues reuniting with their families as soon as possible," he announced after the verdict was read out.

"It is very important that the international court has decided what is right and what is wrong," Marieluise Beck, a Green party representative from the German Bundestag who had come to hear the verdict, told DW. "Everything else is going to be the next step. Russia has to understand that its actions didn't correspond with international law."

Final hope

The US captain of the Arctic Sunrise,
 Peter Willcox, was among 13 activists
freed on Friday

The UN tribunal was the only chance for the detained activists to be released, said Henning Jessen, a professor specializing in maritime law at the University of Hamburg, speaking with news agency dpa before the verdict. According to Jessen, if the tribunal had declared itself incapable of giving a verdict, it would have been unlikely that the Netherlands would have had another legal opportunity challenge Russia.

Just a few hours before the court went into session in Hamburg, another Greenpeace activist, the Russian citizen Roman Dolgov, was able to leave detention, along with other Arctic Sunrise crew members. Of the 30 activists arrested following the protest, all but one have now been released on bail.

Greenpeace's Naidoo said his Russian colleagues had already returned to their families, while the non-Russian activists are currently staying in a hotel in St. Petersburg. Earlier Friday, Russian authorities had announced that the foreigners will not be able to leave Russian territory until the case against them has drawn to a close. The majority of the detained Greenpeace activists are not Russian citizens.

Naidoo, however, was hopeful that Russia would comply with the tribunal's verdict and let the activists go home. "The Russian Federation previously respected the rulings of the tribunal and we hope it will do so this time as well," he said.

Related Article:

Putin says Greenpeace had 'noble' motives as more crew freed

Dutch take Russia to maritime court over Greenpeace ship

A protester holds a placard during a demonstration against the

detention of Greenpeace activists in Russia, outside the Russian

embassy in central London, on October 5, 2013 (AFP/File, Carl Court)

Putin says Greenpeace had 'noble' motives as more crew freed

Google – AFP, 21 November 2013

A photo issued by Greenpeace on November 21, 2013 shows "Arctic 30"

 activist Gizem Akhan (R) from Turkey, in court in Saint Petersburg, Russia

(Greenpeace International/AFP, Vladimir Baryshev)

Saint Petersburg — Russia on Thursday released six Greenpeace activists on bail, bringing to seven the number freed from jail as President Vladimir Putin said the group had noble motives for their Arctic protest.

Photographer Denis Sinyakov, Greenpeace press secretary Andrei Allakhverdov, the ship's doctor Yekaterina Zaspa, David John Haussman from New Zealand, France's Francesco Pisanu and Italian Cristian D'Alessandro all left detention after being granted bail by Saint Petersburg courts, the group said.

Greenpeace International activist Andrey

 Allakhverdov (C), one of the "Arctic 30",

 is released on bail from a detention centre

 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on

November 21, 2013 (AFP, Olga Maltseva)

On Thursday, courts also granted bail to Jon Beauchamp of New Zealand, British crewmembers Frank Hewetson and Iain Rogers, Ukrainian cook Ruslan Yakushev, Canadian bosun Alexandre Paul and Turkish activist Gizem Akhan, Greenpeace said. They have not yet been released.

Three are still awaiting court decisions. One activist from Australia has been refused bail.

Putin said he believed the Greenpeace activists were acting with good intentions, but that they were wrong to climb up the oil platform and ram boats of coastguards.

"Are they doing something noble? Yes, they are. Did they act rightly when they climbed the platform? No, it was not right," he said in televised comments at a meeting with writers.

"Some climbed onto the platform, while others attacked our coastguards, practically storming them with their boats," Putin said.

Putin quoted a catch phrase from a 1960s-era Soviet comedy film that refers to physical punishment: "Fedya, that's not our method."

After treating the crewmembers harshly on their arrest, the Russian authorities have gradually climbed down, reducing their charge from piracy to hooliganism and now sanctioning their release.

Russian photographer Denis Sinyakov, one

of the "Arctic 30," is released on bail from

a detention centre in Saint Petersburg, on

November 21, 2013 (AFP, Olga Maltseva)

But the activists still face a possible jail sentence of up to seven years.

'An act of protest is not hooliganism'

Sinyakov's detention over the September protest at a state-owned oil rig was particularly controversial because he is a well-known press photographer who was working for Greenpeace as a freelancer.

The photographer, who has grown a beard in prison, raised a fist in triumph after stepping out of the notorious Kresty prison.

"An action of protest is not hooliganism," Sinyakov told TV Rain.

"My main task is to prove my innocence.I will be trying to achieve that."

He said that the conditions in the Murmansk prison where he was held until this month were much worse than in Saint Petersburg, but "they were bearable."

"The psychological situation itself is harder," he said.

On Wednesday evening, the first Greenpeace activist, Brazilian Anna Paula Maciel, walked out of her Saint Petersburg prison, smiling and holding a sign saying "Save the Arctic."

A photo released by Greenpeace shows the group's Arctic Sunrise ship docked

 in the port of Murmansk, Russia, on November 7, 2013 (GREENPEACE/AFP/File,

Dmitri Sharomov)

"Ana Paula's passport has now been given back to her and she has been given a special registration card stating that she legally arrived in the Russian Federation," Greenpeace said in a statement sent to AFP, adding that all the freed activists were staying in Saint Petersburg.

"There is no clarity on when the Arctic 30 will be able to return home."

Sinyakov told TV Rain that the investigators were still holding his international passport.

The jailing of the 30 prompted calls for their release from politicians including British Prime Minister David Cameron as well as stars such as Madonna and Paul McCartney.

This week, two courts in Saint Petersburg have ruled to release 26 crewmembers on condition that they pay bail of 2 million rubles ($60,750).

Brazilian Greenpeace International activist

 Ana Paula Maciel, one of the "Arctic 30," is

 released on bail from a detention centre in 

Saint Petersburg, Russia, on November 20,

2013 (AFP, Olga Maltseva)

But a court extended the detention of one crewmember of Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship, 59-year-old Australian radio operator Colin Russell, until February 24.

Australia's ambassador to Russia, Paul Myler, wrote on Twitter that he visited Russell Thursday and the activist was "in good spirits and confident his appeal will be successful."

Myler said Russian officials had suggested to him that the different decision in Russell's case could simply have been due to the fact that he was the first activist in court.

"General consensus: the first pancake never works out," Myler wrote, a Russian proverb meaning that the first attempt at something is usually unsuccessful.

Those granted bail include the two activists who actually scaled the oil rig during the September 18 protest in the Barents Sea.

Greenpeace said Thursday that a court in Murmansk rejected the group's appeal against the confiscation of their ship.

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Dutch take Russia to maritime court over Greenpeace ship

A protester holds a placard during a demonstration against the

detention of Greenpeace activists in Russia, outside the Russian

embassy in central London, on October 5, 2013 (AFP/File, Carl Court)

Netherlands seeks release of Greenpeace activists in Hamburg court

Deutsche Welle, 6 November 2013

A Hamburg-based court is deciding whether to order Russia to release 30 people detained during a protest against oil drilling in the Arctic. Detainees have been charged with hooliganism over the September 18 action.

In proceedings starting at 11 a.m. local time (0900 UTC) on Wednesday, the Netherlands is seeking a ruling by mid-November from Hamburg's International Tribune for the Law of the Sea (ITLS) to secure the provisional release of the detained activists.

On September 18, Russia arrested 30 people after activists attempted to scale the country's first Arctic offshore oil rig.

“We appreciate the Dutch government bringing this case and thank the tribunal for considering it," said Jasper Teulings, the international general counsel for Greenpeace, based in Amsterdam.

"The argument of the Netherlands is that in international waters, ships have the right to freedom of navigation and so this means they may not be boarded, inspected, detained or arrested except with the permission of the flag state," Teulings said.

"There are exceptions to this, but they are limited," he added

A Russian court has so far denied bail to all of those detained. They are being held prisoner in the city of Murmansk.

Russia refuses participation

The Netherlands is also seeking to force Russia to release the activists' Dutch-flagged vessel, the Arctic Sunrise.

Russia has told the court it does not accept the Netherlands' case and will not participate in the proceedings.

The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea - which both the Netherlands and Russia have signed - established the court to settle maritime disputes. Technically, nations should consider the court's decisions binding; however, it has no enforcement powers.

Late last month, Russia's Investigative Committee reduced initial charges of piracy to hooliganism, cutting the maximum jail term from 15 years to seven, after President Vladimir Putin declared the activists not pirates.

However, last week, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev reiterated Moscow's stance that the Greenpeace protest had posed a threat to the security of Russian workers and to the environment by disturbing work at the platform.

mkg/tj (Reuters, dpa)

Dutch take Russia to maritime court over Greenpeace ship

Google – AFP, Jan Hennop (AFP), 21 October 2013

A protester holds a placard during a demonstration against the detention of

 Greenpeace activists in Russia, outside the Russian embassy in central

London, on October 5, 2013 (AFP/File, Carl Court)

The Hague — The Netherlands said Monday it has taken Russia to the world's maritime court in order to free 30 crew members of Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise, charged with piracy after protesting Arctic oil drilling.

"The (Dutch) state is asking for the freeing of the detained crew and the release of the Greenpeace ship," before the German-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), a statement said.

"Because the Netherlands find that the ship's release and the freeing of the crew is an urgent matter, it has now decided on this step," it added.

Russian authorities have charged the environmental group's crew members with piracy, which carries a 15-year sentence, after they staged a protest against Arctic oil drilling last month.

The activists from 18 different countries have been placed in pre-trial detention until late November in the northern Russian city of Murmansk.

Last week, a Murmansk court rejected several bail requests, ignoring a worldwide campaign to have the piracy charges dropped.

Although the Netherlands is calling for the crew to be freed, it has in the past also said Russia had the right to try them.

The Dutch government said it expected a hearing within the next two to three weeks before the Hamburg-based tribunal.

"A decision is expected within a month from today," the Dutch statement said.

The UN-backed tribunal based in the German northern port city opened its doors in 1994, shortly after the UN's Convention of the Law of the Sea came into force.

It has the power to make rulings based on the Convention, which spells out the law and rules governing the world's oceans, seas and resources.

The legal action before the tribunal is the second step in the Dutch government's attempt to have the Greenpeace activists released.

Earlier this month The Hague started legal action against Russia in the form of an arbitration process, but warned if no progress was made it would take the case to the maritime tribunal.

The arbitration procedure "is being continued," the Dutch statement said on Monday, with Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans stressing in the past he preferred a diplomatic solution.

Russia now had to name an arbitrator before November 3, a step already taken by the Netherlands.

In total five arbitrators, including one from each country are needed to try and solve the case.

Should Russia not have named an arbitrator by November 3, the Netherlands "could ask the tribunal's president to name the outstanding four arbitrators," the statement said.

Based in Amsterdam, Greenpeace on Monday welcomed what it termed the "unusual step" by the Dutch government.

"Greenpeace applauds the Dutch government for taking these very important steps," said Greenpeace International's Jasper Teulings.

"However, it will likely take about four weeks before the Tribunal announces the verdict," he added, calling on all governments involved to work to speed up the process.

The September 18 protest saw several activists scale the oil platform in the Barents Sea to denounce Russia's plans to drill in the Arctic.

Russian border guards then lowered themselves onto the Dutch-flagged Arctic Sunrise from a helicopter, locked up the crew and towed the ship to Murmansk, located nearly 2,000 kilometres north of Moscow.

President Vladimir Putin has said that in his opinion the activists were not pirates but had breached international law by getting dangerously close to the oil rig.

The unusually tough charges have sparked comparisons with the case of the Pussy Riot punk rockers who were last year sentenced to two years in a penal colony for demonstrating against Putin in a Moscow church.

The Greenpeace arrests and an attack on a Dutch diplomat in Moscow, following the allegedly rough arrest of a Russian diplomat in The Hague, has caused a diplomatic flare-up between the two states whose friendship dates back to Tsar Peter the Great.

The spat is particularly embarrassing coming during a Russian-Dutch Bilateral Year aimed at promoting cultural ties.

The Arctic Sunrise, Greenpeace's Arctic protest ship, somewhere off the
coast of Russia on September 17, 2013 (Greenpeace/AFP/File, Denis Sinyakov)

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