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Premier Medvedev at platform Lukoil (AFP) |
The Netherlands is taking legal action against Russia in an
effort to have the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise released from Russian coastguard
control.
Foreign minister Frans Timmermans said on Friday he is
taking steps under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea to have the ship
released. He will fight for the crew's release through diplomatic channels.
The 30 activitists on board the ship, which sales under the
Dutch flag, were arrested last month while protesting about a Gasprom rig in
Russia’s northern waters. All have since been remanded in custody and charged
with piracy.
According to Nos television, a tribunal in Hamburg will
decide if Russia was right to take the action it did.
‘We understand that Russia wants to preserve the security of
its waters but we are not in agreement with the way the Greenpeace ship has
been dealt with,’ a spokesman for the minister told website nu.nl. ‘That is why
we are taking this action.’
According to the BBC, the Netherlands is the first country
to take action in an effort to have its nationals released. Two of the crew are
Dutch.
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