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Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise Case

Legal proceedings started against Greenpeace activists over attack on Russian drilling platform in Arctic

Greenpeace claimed that the investigators told their activists who are onboard the ship that they would be taken from the ship

Photo ITAR-TASS / Leo Fedoveev

Photo ITAR-TASS / Leo Fedoveev

MURMANSK, September 24 (Itar-Tass) - Investigators of the Russian Investigations Committee have begun legal proceedings against Greenpeace activists who attempted to board a Russian drilling platform in Arctic waters.

The incident took place on September 18, 2013 incident, when a group of persons, activists of the Greenpeace environmental organization, onboard the Arctic Sunrise icebreaker flying the flag of the Netherlands, made an attempt to board the Prirazlomnaya drilling rig in the Pechora Sea the southeastern part of the Barents Sea. Russian coastal guards thwarted the attempt to board the platform and tugged the Arctic Sunrise to the port of Murmansk.

On Tuesday, investigators from the Russian Investigations Committee went onboard the ship as soon as it arrived at the Murmansk port, a spokesman for the Russian Federal Security Service’s border directorate told Itar-Tass. The investigators are still aboard the ship.

A spokesman for the Murmansk region department of the Russian Investigations Committee confirmed that the Committee’s northwestern federal district department had commissioned a team of investigators to the Arctic Sunrise.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace claimed that the investigators told their activists who are onboard the ship that they would be taken from the ship.

Earlier on Tuesday, a Russian Investigations Committee spokesman said that a criminal case on piracy charges had been opened over the incident.

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