14 DAY TRIAL // Greenpeace finally has something to be happy about. Long story short, a Russian court in St. Petersburg has agreed to grant bail to three of the Arctic Sunrise's crew.
Once $61,300 (€45,396) is paid for each of them, the three detainees will be released from prison and allowed to return to their families.
According to RT, the three Greenpeace crew members who are to be released on bail are all Russian citizens. What's more, none of them was aboard the Arctic Sunrise as a protester.
Thus, Yekaterina Zaspa was the ship's doctor, Denis Sinyakov was there as a freelance photographer, and Andrey Allakhverdov acted as a press officer for the organization and the environmentalists.
Now that a judge has agreed to allow these three people to go free, Greenpeace has two working days to transfer the bail money by wire.
Should the organization fail to meet this deadline, Yekaterina Zaspa, Denis Sinyakov and Andrey Allakhverdov risk remaining in prison until December 8 at the earliest.
Despite being allowed to go home, the three are expected to attend court meetings and defend themselves against the hooliganism charges filed against the entire Arctic Sunrise crew.
If they fail to do so, the bail money will not be returned to Greenpeace and will instead go to Russia.
What's interesting is that, although these three people were granted bail, Australian activist Colin Russell was denied one by another judge than the one who presided over Yekaterina Zaspa, Denis Sinyakov and Andrey Allakhverdov's case.
Hence, he is to spend at least another three months in jail.
“The case against the Arctic 30 has descended into high farce. An Australian environmentalist without a passport is refused bail on the grounds that he could flee the country or interfere in an investigation into a peaceful protest in the Arctic, while another detainee arrested in identical circumstances is told she [i.e. Yekaterina Zaspa] can leave jail,” Mads Christensen with Greenpeace commented on the outcome of these hearing.
“They should all be released from prison. This is a scandal, this bears no relation to the administration of justice. We will do everything we can to get our people out,” the activist added.
Hopefully, more news on the topic will soon be shared with the public.