COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The head of Greenpeace and another activist were arrested Friday after they climbed an oil rig off Greenland's west coast in an attempt to stop a Scottish oil company from deepwater drilling in Arctic waters, Danish police said.
Greenpeace executive director Kumi Naidoo and a Norwegian activist were taken into custody on top of the Leiv Eriksson drilling rig, which has been the target of a series of protests by the environmentalist group.
Both would be transferred to Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, to face charges of trespassing and violating Greenland’s "home rule order on safety zones," police spokesman Morten Nielsen told The Associated Press. Greenland is a semiautonomous Danish territory.
A Dutch court last week issued an injunction barring the Greenpeace activists from approaching the Cairn Energy-operated rig after 20 of its activists were arrested in previous protest actions.
Greenpeace says oil drilling presents a threat to the fragile Arctic environment and has called on Cairn to present a plan on how to cope with a potential oil spill.
Cairn says Greenland authorities require such plans to be confidential.
In a statement Friday, Cairn said its operations are "safe and prudent" and that Greenland’s government had established "some of the most stringent operating regulations anywhere."
Greenpeace said the two activists entered the exclusion zone around the Leiv Eriksson in an inflatable speedboat, evading a Danish navy ship protecting the rig.
They used a ladder to climb the platform and demanded to see the captain.
Greenpeace officials watching the events from a nearby ship said the two activists were arrested by law enforcement officers airlifted onto the rig from the navy vessel.
