Greenpeace's Actic Sunrise Detention: Diplomats Meet
Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans informs 'Russia info' that he has met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss the situation concerning the Greenpeace vessel.
Relations between Russia and the Netherlands have been tense recently since an attack on a Russian diplomat in the Hague and the arrest in Russia of the Arctic Sunrise vessel, which sailed under the Dutch flag.
On 19 September, 2013, border guards stormed the Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise ship after the conservationists tried to hold a protest on the Prirazlomnaya platform in the Pechora sea.
All 30 people on board the Arctic Sunrise during the protest were arrested and are implicated in cases of hooliganism. The environmentalists had previously been accused of piracy.
On 21 October, the Netherlands turned to the International Tribunal on the basis of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to take a decision to release the vessel and crew. On November 6, the Tribunal considered the appeal. It is planned that the verdict will be announced on 22 November.
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The transport away from Murmansk of the thirty men and women detained by Russia started at around 5:00am Monday, local time. Greenpeace International understands the move is taking place by prisoner train. Lawyers for the thirty who tried to visit them in Murmansk this morning were told by officials at the detention.
Greenpeace inform that the most common method of transporting detainees in Russia is by a prison wagon, which can be attached to either a passenger train or cargo train. Detainees are placed in special carriages, containing cells.