A Russian court charged five Greenpeace activists with piracy Wednesday morning, after a demonstration at an oil platform in the Arctic earlier in September.
According to head of Greenpeace Arctic Vladimir Chuprov, who spoke with the Los Angeles Times, Roman Dolgov of Russia, Sini Saarela of Finland, Anna Paula Maciel of Brazil, Kieron Bryan of Britain and Dima Litvinov, a U.S. and Swedish citizen, were charged with organized group piracy, which might lead to a prison sentencing anywhere from five to 15 years, and a fine of up to $15,000.
"We hoped to the last that common sense would prevail, and Russian authorities would not resort to such absurd actions, but they proved us wrong," Churpov told the LA Times. "Piracy means seizing someone's property through a threat or an act of violence and a motive of making illegal profits from it, none of which can be applied to our activists who were engaged in a peaceful protest against the harmful exploration of the Arctic."
The five activists were part of a group of 30 on board the Arctic Sunrise ship that was seized by Russian border troops Sept. 19. Russian President Vladimir Putin defended the detainment of the vessel, saying that the troops took hold of it because they were unsure of the ship's activity in their waters. Some were worried that the ship housed pirates, even though Greenpeace's distinctive emblem - along with a dove and rainbow trail - was painted on the body of the Arctic Sunrise.
The activists were protesting oil drilling in the arctic. Some of them tried to climb up the face of an oil-drilling platform in the Barents Sea, reportedly to hang a banner there. After troops raided the ship, Arctic Sunrise was towed to Murmansk, a main port city, where the activists were put in a detention center.
Last week, Russian authorities threatened to detain the group for a two-month holding period, after the protestors resisted coast guard troops, according to the Investigative Committee in Moscow's website.
The platform in question, Prirazlomnaya, is an oil deal sponsored by the state-run energy program Gazprom. A spokesperson for the company, Sergei Kupriyanov, said that the activists put company divers working in the water near the platform in danger.
