Russian court denies bail for Greenpeace crew accused of piracy in Arctic protest
14 replies, posted
[url]http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/14/20964722-russian-court-denies-bail-for-greenpeace-crew-accused-of-piracy-in-arctic-protest?lite[/url]
[QUOTE]The crew and the American captain of a Greenpeace ship charged with piracy for a protest at a Russian oil platform in the Arctic were denied bail Monday, the environmental activist group told NBC News.
Peter Willcox, 60, and his crew of about 30 protesters were arrested Sept. 19, a day after some of them tried to climb the Prirazlomnaya oil rig, which Gazprom, the state oil company, operates in the Arctic Ocean near the tiny settlement of Verandey. [B]The piracy charges carry sentences of up to 15 years in jail.[/B]
Greenpeace and other environmental groups have protested the rig because of what they say are the unique circumstances in the area — it's sealed off from other oceans, meaning a potential oil spill couldn't disperse, critically endangering polar bears and other Arctic wildlife.
Greenpeace confirmed to NBC News that the court in the northern Russian city of Murmansk denied bail for Willcox and other members of the crew.[/QUOTE]
The protesters were being incredibly stupid but I'm still hoping they don't get 15 years in Russian prison.
[QUOTE=Rangergxi;42528522][url]http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/14/20964722-russian-court-denies-bail-for-greenpeace-crew-accused-of-piracy-in-arctic-protest?lite[/url]
The protesters were being incredibly stupid but I'm still hoping they don't get 15 years in Russian prison.[/QUOTE]
From what I have seen and read, Russian prisons are apparently better than many American ones. The security is strict and if you try to resist, you are fucked, but as long as you play by the (official) rules, there's far less abuse from the guards and nearly no violence between the inmates.
And still no international court like piracy cases should be held in.
Although 15 years might be too much, I think it's a good thing that we show these environmentalist groups that you can't act like a pirate and then shout 'BUT MUH ENVIRONMENTS!'. Next thing we'll have terrorists doing the same thing with bombs.
[QUOTE=iwancoppa;42529196]Although 15 years might be too much, I think it's a good thing that we show these environmentalist groups that you can't act like a pirate and then shout 'BUT MUH ENVIRONMENTS!'. Next thing we'll have terrorists doing the same thing with bombs.[/QUOTE]
If it were the us, they'd get life by the way our laws are written, they really are getting off easily.
[url]http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2011-title18/html/USCODE-2011-title18-partI-chap81-sec1651.htm[/url]
[QUOTE=iwancoppa;42529196]Although 15 years might be too much, I think it's a good thing that we show these environmentalist groups that you can't act like a pirate and then shout 'BUT MUH ENVIRONMENTS!'. Next thing we'll have terrorists doing the same thing with bombs.[/QUOTE]
yeah all you need is a single aggressive environmentalist group and BAM! [I][B]TERRORISM[/B][/I]
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;42529070]From what I have seen and read, Russian prisons are apparently better than many American ones. The security is strict and if you try to resist, you are fucked, but as long as you play by the (official) rules, there's far less abuse from the guards and nearly no violence between the inmates.[/QUOTE]
This was from RT which is a Kremlin run news station that did that documentary on Russian prisons you may be referring to, I wouldn't trust them so much
Sad that invasion of property takes away your freedom for 15 years. None of you see a problem with this?
[QUOTE='[Seed Eater];42530305']Sad that invasion of property takes away your freedom for 15 years. None of you see a problem with this?[/QUOTE]
If someone breaks into your property how would you feel?
What were they intending to do once on the oil platform anyway? Stop drilling? walk around? Steal stuff? start a fight?
They literally had no reason to attempt to invade an oil rig.
[QUOTE=iwancoppa;42530674]What were they intending to do once on the oil platform anyway? Stop drilling? walk around? Steal stuff? start a fight?
They literally had no reason to attempt to invade an oil rig.[/QUOTE]
They were trying to hassle the oil company.
Good. Fuck Greenpeace. Morons like that make it nearly impossible for an eco group to be taken seriously, they endanger lives, and are a general pain in everyone's ass.
[QUOTE=Rangergxi;42528522]The protesters were being incredibly stupid but I'm still hoping they don't get 15 years in Russian prison.[/QUOTE]
I'm hoping they do. They earned life for all the shit they've done over the years, even if the Russian courts can't/won't charge them for it all.
[QUOTE=theVendetta;42530367]If someone breaks into your property how would you feel?[/QUOTE]
[URL="http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1311215&p=42342264&highlight=#post42342264"]Personal/private property.[/URL] This is a major distinction. Boarding an oil rig or breaking into a store is different from breaking into a home. Doing this for publicity or protest isn't dissimilar to civil disobedience or labor sit-ins, and it's generally the rule in western countries that "If you aren't seriously damaging anything then you aren't going to get severely punished". We're long past the times of executing those who sabotage privately owned machines, but yet we can take away someone's freedom and enslave them for 15 years because they boarded a piece of private property?
I think it's a seriously fucked up proposition that we can do that to someone in the interest of preserving someone's private property exclusion. Your right to protest, speech, freedom of movement, is subjugated to a corporation's right to enforce the private nature of their property.
We're all in an uproar when a woman proclaims that she can't feed her kids on her wage while at a McDonald's meeting, and is arrested because she was then not welcome and therefore trespassing, yet when it's something that you don't agree with- Green Peace's ecoactivism- then all of a sudden they deserve 15 years?
[QUOTE=theVendetta;42530367]If someone breaks into your property how would you feel?[/QUOTE]
Invite him for some tea and chat, obviously
[url=http://rbth.ru/international/2013/09/27/what_laws_did_greenpeace_activists_break_30219.html]What Greenpeace did wasn't piracy by Russian or international law[/url]
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.