SAINT PETERSBURG: Russia yesterday concluded bail hearings and ruled to release all but one of the 30 Greenpeace crew members who have spent more than two months in prison over a protest against Arctic drilling.
Courts in Saint Petersburg have now granted bail to 29 of the 30 crew members, 26 of whom have been released, while one Australian activist has been detained until February.
The move came just before an international maritime court ordered Russia to release the ship and its crew on payment of a $4.9m bond.
The German-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, based in the northern port city of Hamburg, also ordered Moscow to allow the detainees to leave the country on receipt of the bond.
The veteran US captain of the Greenpeace ship, Peter Willcox, was among the 15 to be freed yesterday.
Also released were five British crew members: video journalist Kieron Bryan, communications officer Alexandra Harris, activist Anthony Perrett, second engineer Iain Rogers and logistics coordinator Frank Hewetson.
Activist Marco Weber from Switzerland, who was one of those to scale a Russian oil platform in the protest, was freed on Friday as well. President Vladimir Putin said Russia had no desire to exacerbate a situation that has already seen Moscow draw sharp rebukes from several European heads of state.
afp
