Russia to Ignore international Ruling on Greenpeace Ship. – Kremlin, Sergei Ivanov

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ST. PETERSBURG, November 23 (RIA Novosti) – Russia would not comply with the ruling of an international court that ordered it to release a Greenpeace ship it seized in September with all crew, a Kremlin official said Saturday.
“We won’t [react]. We have no plans to participate in this process,” Sergei Ivanov, who heads the Kremlin administration, told journalists in St. Petersburg.
The International Tribunal on the Law for the Sea in Hamburg ruled on Friday that Russia must release the Arctic Sunrise icebreaker and all 30 people on board on bond of 3.6 million euro ($4.8 million).
The release is a provisional measure: The maritime court still has to rule on the legality of Russia seizing the vessel.

Russia said earlier it does not accept the court’s authority in the case because of exceptions the country made when ratifying the UN’s Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1997.
Ivanov reaffirmed Russia’s dismissal of the tribunal.
“The question will be solved on a judicial, not political plane, [and] based on Russian legislation, not someone’s political wishes,” the Kremlin official said.
Russia has earlier accused the Netherlands, which filed the lawsuit in the Hamburg court, of ignoring its complaints about the Arctic Sunrise, which sails under the Dutch flag.

The ship was seized in September after a two-month-long voyage in the Russian Arctic that culminated with Greenpeace activists trying to storm a Russian oil rig to protest against drilling for oil in the region.

The ship is currently moored in the Russian port of Murmansk, while all people on board are pending a trial on hooliganism charges, punishable with up to seven years in prison.
The “Arctic 30,” as Greenpeace dubbed them, were initially charged with piracy and spent two months in Russian pretrial detention.

• But all except one crewmember were released on bail of 2 million rubles ($61,500) per person last week following a massive international campaign in their support.

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131123/184906443/Russia-to-Ignore-Intl-Ruling-on-Greenpeace-Ship--Kremlin.html
23/11/13
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Russie : presque tous les militants de Greenpeace libérés sous caution.

Presque tous les membres de l'équipage du navire de Greenpeace arraisonné en septembre en Russie étaient sortis de prison sous caution vendredi, mais la justice internationale a réclamé qu'ils puissent quitter le pays.

Le Tribunal international du droit de la mer, basé à Hambourg et saisi par les Pays-Bas, dont l'Arctic Sunrise de Greenpeace bat pavillon, a ordonné de lever la saisie du navire contre le versement d’une caution de 3,6 millions d'euros et de permettre aux membres étrangers de l'équipage de quitter le pays.

Cette juridiction des Nations unies compétente pour régler les litiges maritimes internationaux, a demandé dans sa décision à la Russie d'autoriser "toutes les personnes qui ont été détenues (...) à quitter le territoire et les zones maritimes relevant de sa juridiction".
Les membres étrangers de l'équipage, libérés sous caution de 2 millions de roubles chacun (45 000 euros), ne peuvent quitter le territoire russe selon la décision des tribunaux de Saint-Pétersbourg, a indiqué à l'AFP le directeur exécutif de Greenpeace Kumi Naidoo, qui se trouvait à l'audience à Hambourg.

23 prisonniers sur 30 relâchés
"A cette heure, 29 (sur 30, ndlr) ont bénéficié d'une décision de libération sous caution, 23 ont déjà été relâchés. Nos collègues russes ont rejoint leurs familles à Moscou mais le reste de nos collègues du monde entier n'ont pas le droit de quitter le pays", a-t-il déclaré.

• La diplomatie russe a d'ores et déjà déclaré que Moscou, qui a boycotté le procès, ne reconnaissait pas en ce cas précis la compétence du tribunal international du droit de la mer, qui empiète selon elle sur son "droit souverain".

Le capitaine de l'Arctic Sunrise, l'Américain Peter Willcox - qui commandait en 1985 le Rainbow Warrior dynamité par les services secrets français en Nouvelle-Zélande - est sorti vendredi de son centre de détention à Saint-Pétersbourg (nord-ouest) après le versement de sa caution.

"Une saga loin d'être terminée"
"Nous menons des actions pacifiques et non-violentes. C'est la première fois, la première fois en 40 ans, que je passe plus d'une nuit en prison. Et comme tous mes collègues, cela ne m'a pas plu", a déclaré à sa sortie ce militant de longue date de Greenpeace, âgé de 60 ans.
Le Suisse Marco Weber, les Néerlandais Faiza Oulahsen et Mannes Ubels, le Canadien Paul Ruzycki, les Britanniques Kieron Bryan et Anthony Perrett et l'Argentin Miguel Hernan Perz Orzi ont aussi été libérés.
Ils ont été suivis un peu plus tard par les Britanniques Alexandra Harris, Frank Hewetson, Iain Rogers, le Néo-Zélandais Jonathan Beauchamp, la Turque Gizem Akhan, l'Ukrainien Rouslan Iakouchev et le Canadien Alexandre Paul.
Le Suédo-Américain d'origine russe Dmitri Litvinov et le Russe Roman Dolgov, pour lesquels la justice s'est prononcée vendredi, ont aussi pu quitter dans la soirée leur prison.
Onze membres d'équipage avaient déjà été libérés mercredi et jeudi.

Vladimir Poutine ne veut pas "aggraver quoi que ce soit"
Un seul militant, l'Australien Colin Russell, a vu sa détention provisoire prolongée de trois mois, jusqu'au 24 février. Selon l'ambassadeur australien en Russie, il devrait faire appel et est confiant dans la décision qui sera rendue.
Un peu plus tôt dans la journée, le président Vladimir Poutine a affirmé que les autorités russes n'avaient pas l'intention d'interférer dans cette affaire.
"La direction politique de la Russie n'a pas l'intention d'interférer dans ce procès", a-t-il déclaré après une rencontre à Saint-Pétersbourg avec le Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"Il n'y a pas d'intention d'aggraver quoi que ce soit ou de maintenir en détention quelqu'un en particulier", a-t-il ajouté.
Les 30 membres de l'équipage arrêtés en septembre après une action contre une plateforme pétrolière de Gazprom dans l'Arctique ont été inculpés de piraterie, puis, fin octobre, de hooliganisme.
AFP
http://www.rtbf.be/info/monde/detail_russie-la-quasi-totalite-des-militants-de-greenpeace-en-liberte-sous-caution?id=8141455

A lire aussi:

• Russia says will scrutinize resolution of int’l maritime tribunal.

• Streit um Greenpeace-Schiff "Arctic Sunrise" Russland akzeptiert Gerichtsurteil nicht...

• UN-backed tribunal orders Russia to release Greenpeace protest ship and crew

• Greenpeace Protests in Moscow As Arctic Sunrise Tribunal Opens.

• Bohrinsel-Angriff: Greenpeace-Aktivisten in Russland unter Piraterie-Verdacht.

• Greenpeace Ship Sails to Arctic Kara Sea Despite Ban

  

Russia says will scrutinize resolution of int’l maritime tribunal.

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MOSCOW, November 22, 20:40 /ITAR-TASS/. Russia will certainly scrutinize Friday’s resolution of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea regarding the Arctic Sunrise case and will formulate a stance on it, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
“We’d like to hope the tribunal tackled the case objectively and took account of all the aspects of the /September 18/ incident involving the ship /from aboard which a group of Greenpeace activists tried to get over to a Russian drilling platform - Itar-Tass/, including a failure of the flag state to honor its international legal obligations and encroachment by ship’s crew on the terms of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in the field of navigation in the exclusive economic zone of a foreign state,” a spokesman for the ministry said.


September 18, The Arctic Sunrise approached a Russian oil drilling rig in the Pechora Sea carrying thirty people aboard, including a number of Greenpeace activists. The tried to get on to the platform from the ship but were detained by Russian maritime border guards.
When the scandalous action was aborted, the ship was towed to the port of Murmansk where all the thirty participants were arrested, initially on charges of sea piracy that were later redefined as hooliganism.

The activists were transported from Murmansk to St Petersburg earlier this month and local courts passed resolutions this week to release them on bail.

• Friday, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea passed a ruling demanding that Russia release the ship flagged by the Netherlands and the thirty crewmembers on receipt of a 3.6 million bond from the Dutch authorities.

“The Russian Federation shall immediately release the vessel Arctic Sunrise and all persons who have been detained upon the posting of a bond or other financial security by the Netherlands,” said the tribunal’s resolution passed by nineteen arbiters under the presidency of Shunji Yanai from Japan.
The tribunal ordered Russia to allow the vessel and those detained to leave the country.

• In the meantime, under the terms of the bail specified by the St Petersburg courts, all the Greenpeaceniks released from custody centers should stay in Russia, as charges with hooliganism have not been dropped against them so far.

 itar-tass.com
22/11/13
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Related:

• UN-backed tribunal orders Russia to release Greenpeace protest ship and crew

• Greenpeace Protests in Moscow As Arctic Sunrise Tribunal Opens.

• Bohrinsel-Angriff: Greenpeace-Aktivisten in Russland unter Piraterie-Verdacht.

• Greenpeace Ship Sails to Arctic Kara Sea Despite Ban

  

UN-backed tribunal orders Russia to release Greenpeace protest ship and crew.

22 November 2013 – The United Nations-backed International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea today ordered that Russia release the Greenpeace ship and its crew that it seized in September following a protest over oil drilling off its coast, once the Netherlands posts a bond of 3.6 million euros.
The Arctic Sunrise – an icebreaker operated by the environmental group and which flies the flag of the Netherlands – was boarded by Russian officials on 19 September, brought to the port of Murmansk Oblast and detained.

Last month, the Netherlands instituted arbitral proceedings against Russia under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, claiming that that the arrest and detention of the vessel and its crew by Russia violated the treaty.
It also requested that the Tribunal, based in the German city of Hamburg, prescribe provisional measures pending the arbitral proceedings. 

By a vote of 19 to 2, the Tribunal’s judges today ordered that, pending arbitration, Russia “shall immediately release the vessel Arctic Sunrise and all persons who have been detained, upon the posting of a bond or other financial security by the Netherlands which shall be in the amount of 3,600,000 euros…”

The Arctic Sunrise was used by Greenpeace International, a non-governmental organization, to stage a protest against the offshore ice-resistant fixed platform ‘Prirazlomnaya’ in the Barents Sea.
un.org
22/11/13
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Related:

• Greenpeace Protests in Moscow As Arctic Sunrise Tribunal Opens.

• Bohrinsel-Angriff: Greenpeace-Aktivisten in Russland unter Piraterie-Verdacht.

• Greenpeace Ship Sails to Arctic Kara Sea Despite Ban