Russian Prison Stuns Captain of Greenpeace’s Bombed Ship

The captain of a Greenpeace ship released on bail after two months of detention in a Russian prison following an Arctic protest said he and his fellow activists remain in shock at their treatment. American Peter Willcox, who was also in charge of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior when it was sunk in Auckland in 1985 by a bomb planted by the French intelligence service, said the organization again found itself in the crosshairs of a government bent on throttling the environmental group. “There is a similarity between the two cases,” with both the French and Russian governments targeting Greenpeace to prevent it from carrying out its campaigns, Willcox said by phone yesterday from St. Petersburg. In New Zealand, “the loss of life was the most difficult thing for us to deal with and it just doesn’t get any worse than that. Though I have to admit that this, for the people involved, was quite trying.” Russia has faced worldwide protests and was ordered on Nov. 22 by a United Nations court to release the Arctic Sunrise and the crew after impounding Greenpeace’s ship and initially charging the 30 campaigners with piracy, which is punishable by as much as 15 years in prison. Prosecutors since cut the charges to hooliganism, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years...more