Credit: Reuters/Igor Podgorny/Greenpeace/Handout via Reuters
1 of 3. Greenpeace International activist Dimitri Litvinov, one of the ''Arctic 30'' detained on piracy charges, attends his bail hearing at the Regional Court of Murmansk October 23, 2013.
The charges against activists who protested at a Gazprom oil platform off Russia's northern coast last month have been changed from piracy to hooliganism, the federal Investigative Committee said in a statement.
All 30 people who were aboard the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise during the September 18 protest, in which activists tried to scale the Prirazlomnaya platform, are being held in detention until at least late November.
The Investigative Committee said it had begun the procedure of pressing the new charges, which carry a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. The piracy charges were punishable by 10 to 15 years in prison.
At the same time, the Investigative Committee said the investigation was continuing and reiterated that it could still bring additional charges against some of the activists, including the use of force against representatives of the state.
Greenpeace has said the protest was peaceful and that the piracy charges were illegal and absurd. President Vladimir Putin has said the activists were clearly not pirates but that they had violated international law.
(Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Alison Williams)
Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - Rating: 4.5
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