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Finnish Greenpeace activist to remain in custody until November 24

Saarela and other Greenpeace activists from the Arctic Sunrise ice-breaker were detained in September as they tried to get onboard the Prirazlomnaya oil platform
Sini Saarela, AP Photo/Greenpeace
Sini Saarela, AP Photo/Greenpeace

MURMANSK, October 21 (Itar-Tass) - A regional court in the Russian city of Murmansk on Monday upheld a decision of the court of lower jurisdiction to extend the arrest of Sini Saarela, a Greenpeace activist from Finland. She will remain in custody until November 24, a Greenpeace representative in Russia told Itar-Tass.

Saarela and other Greenpeace activists from the Arctic Sunrise ice-breaker were detained in September as they tried to get onboard the Prirazlomnaya oil platform in the Pechora Sea in the northwest of Russia.

Saarela told the trial that she had been in the Pechora Sea to warn people about the dangers of oil drilling in the Arctic.

“Her counsel for the defense asked to release her on a 30-million-rouble bail. However, the court refused to give any comments and left her in custody in a pre-trial detention ward,” the Greenpeace representative said.

October 21, the court is expected to make decisions on appeals of another three Arctic Sunrise activists, including Tomas Demjancuk of Poland, Swiss Marco Paolo Weber and British subject Jen Christopher Rogers, the Arctic Sunrise second engineer.