14 DAY TRIAL // By yesterday evening, 14 of the 30 Greenpeace activists arrested by Russian authorities were officially charged with piracy.
Proceedings in a court in the Murmansk are to continue this Thursday, so odds are the other 16 Greenpeace members who now find themselves in police custody will also be accused of being pirates.
RT tells us that, if found guilty of piracy, the environmentalists risk being sentenced to 15 years in prison.
As previously reported, the Greenpeace activists were arrested in the aftermath of a protest they organized against an oil rig owned and operated by Russian company Gazprom.
Together with President Putin, Russian authorities believe that, by scaling the oil rig, the activists endangered the safety of the workers aboard it.
Greenpeace disagrees, and says that the environmentalists did not at any time put anyone in danger.
“A charge of piracy is being laid against men and women whose only crime is to be possessed of a conscience. This is an outrage and represents nothing less than an assault on the very principle of peaceful protest,” Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo said in a statement.
“Any claim that these activists are pirates is as absurd as it is abominable. It is utterly irrational, it is designed to intimidate and silence us, but we will not be cowed,” he added.