MOSCOW, November 18 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian court ruled Monday to grant bail to one person out of the Greenpeace group that was detained in September for mounting a protest against oil drilling in the Arctic Sea.
A judge at Kalininsky District Court set the bail for Yekaterina Zaspa, who was ship doctor for the Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise icrebreaker, at 2 million rubles ($61,500).
A group of 28 Greenpeace activists and two reporters were initially charged with piracy for attempting to climb aboard an Arctic Sea oil platform owned by an affiliate of state-run energy giant Gazprom, but those charges were later downgraded to hooliganism, an offense punishable by up to seven years in jail.
Zaspa, a 37-year old Russian national, will be free as soon as the money is transferred, which could take one or two days, a Greenpeace spokeswoman told RIA Novosti.
Another court in the northern city of St. Petersburg earlier in the day prolonged until February 24 the arrest for fellow crew member Colin Russell, an Australian citizen.
Courts are to rule in the coming days on whether to keep the other detainees in pretrial detention or release them on bail as the international campaign for their freedom continues to gain momentum.
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