Russian Court Orders Greenpeace Activists Held Thursday Sep 26,2013

All 30 were detained last week aboard the icebreaker Arctic Sunrise, which was seized by Russian coast guards in the Barents Sea after two activists tried to scale state-controlled Gazprom's Prirazlomnaya offshore oil platform

 An activist dressed as a polar bear holds a banner in front of Greenpeace’s Arctic protest ship, moored beside a Russian Coast Guard ship in Kola Bay near Murmansk on September 24, 2013

The 30 people included six Britons and four Russians as well as nationals of Argentina, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United State

Russia's federal Investigative Committee has termed the protest an attack and opened a criminal case on suspicion of piracy, which is punishable by up to 15 years in jail

A Russian court ordered 20 Greenpeace activists from around the world to be held in custody for two months pending further investigation over a protest against offshore oil drilling in the Arctic, while eight activists were ordered to be held for three days pending a further hearing

The court in the port city of Murmansk worked into the evening, conducting individual hearings for the crew members — 30 in all — who were detained at the oil rig last week

Russian President Vladimir Putin said at an Arctic forum on Thursday Sep 26,2013 that the activists were clearly not pirates but had broken international law, suggesting they might end up facing less severe charges 

Netherlands-based Greenpeace International said.
"These detentions are like the Russian oil industry itself, a relic from an earlier era. Our peaceful activists are in prison tonight for shining a light on Gazprom's recklessness,"