You're reading: Greenpeace starts transferring funds to have its activists released from detention

Greenpeace has started transferring the funds needed for release of activists from detention facilities, Greenpeace lawyer Anton Beneslavsky told Interfax on Wednesday, Nov. 20.

“We have managed to reach agreements with courts and are transferring money to their accounts. Formal technical procedures are being carried out now,” Beneslavsky said.

The money is not being deposited for all activists eligible to be released on bail at once but gradually, Beneslavsky said. He could not specify for whom the bails have already been deposited.

It was reported earlier that the organization faced problems with the transfer of funds for bail for the arrested activists, as the investigation refused to accept the money and suggested that the defense teams address the courts.

St. Petersburg courts granted bail on Nov. 18 and Nov. 19 to 12 members of the Arctic Sunrise vessel’s crew. The Australian activist Colin Russell is the only activist whose arrest has been extended so far.

The Russian Coast Guard stopped the Arctic Sunrise vessel operated by Greenpeace in the Pechora Sea on Sep. 19 after some environmentalists attempted to protest against oil extraction at the Prirazlomnaya drilling platform. The Arctic Sunrise was towed to Murmansk on Sep. 24, and a local court imposed a two-month arrest on all of the 30 members of its international crew. On Nov. 12, all these people were brought to St. Petersburg and placed in local detention centers.