The Dutch Foreign Ministry on Friday said it has finalized a bank guarantee of €3.6 million in compliance with a binding ruling by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) ordering Russia to release the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise and the so-called Arctic 30.
“The Netherlands has now fulfilled its part of the Tribunal’s binding order and Russia is obligated to also comply by releasing the ship and the Arctic 30, as the Tribunal so ordered. The Tribunal has ordered both Russia and the Netherlands to report back on progress with their compliance by December 2. We at Greenpeace assume the Russian Federation will comply with the order”, Jasper Teulings, general counsel at Greenpeace International said in a press release.
Greenpeace International said it will cover the costs associated with the issuing of the bank guarantee and will make sure that Dutch taxpayers are not affected by the Tribunal’s order.
Australian activist Colin Russell was released from detention on bail on Thursday last week, as the last of the 28 activists and two journalists. The activists have been released on bail of 2 million rubles ($61,500) per person after about two months in pretrial detention in Murmansk and St. Petersburg, following a massive international campaign in their support. They are not allowed to leave Russia before the trial.
All members of the international crew face up to seven years in prison for their part in a September protest by Greenpeace activists in which they attempted to scale Gazprom’s “Prirazlomnaya” oil platform in the Pechora Sea.
