Russia jails US captain of Greenpeace ship and its crew of activists for PIRACY after they tried to scale Arctic oil rig

Greenpeace captain Pete Willcox detained for two months along with nine other activists



Arrests come after protests against oil drilling in Russian Arctic last week



Prosecutors looking into filing piracy charges against members of 30-strong crew



A U.S. captain of a Greenpeace ship has been jailed along with several other activists who were protesting near an oil platform in the Artcic.

The Russian Coast Guard abseiled from helicopters onto Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship and arrested 30 demonstrators on-board, including six UK nationals.

The Greenpeace team had been in the remote Pechora Sea in the Russian Arctic, near to Russian oil company Gazprom's Prirazlomnaya oil platform to try and prevent attempts to drill for oil in the region.

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U.S. captain Peter Willcox (left) and boat mechanic Jonathon Beauchamp (right) are kept behind bars as they are remanded in custody for their involvement in the Greenpeace protest against a Russian oil drilling company

Jailed: Ten Greenpeace activists were remanded in custody by a Russian judge on Thursday, including Greenpeace spokesman Roman Dolgov (left) and protestor Dmitry Litvinov (right)

In court on Thursday, American captain Pete Willcox, along with three Russians, two New Zealanders, a Frenchman, a Canadian, a Pole and a Turk, were remanded in custody for two months.



Authorities are looking into whether they could be charged with piracy, among other offenses.

Under Russian law, prosecutors can ask a judge to detain people pending further investigation.

Russian judge Dmitry Krivonosov handed 10 Greenpeace activists two month jail sentences for their protest in Russian waters last week.

Three others were remanded for just three days while the fate of the remaining 17 protestors was still being decided.

Greenpeace's executive director, Kumi Naidoo, slammed the judge's decision, insisting it is scare tactic to stop future protests.

He said: 'The Russian authorities are trying to scare people who stand up to the oil industry in the Arctic, but this blatant intimidation will not succeed.'

These dramatic tweets from the Arctic Sunrise describe the moment armed Russian coastguard officials boarded the vessel

During the raid on the ship on September 18, activists tweeted claims armed guards were attempting to kick down the door of the communications room.

They also wrote: 'Latest from the deck: Crew are sitting on their knees on the helipad with guns pointed at them.'

A short time later, contact with the ship was lost, Greenpeace said.

Two activists had already been arrested by the coastguard for a protest in which they scaled the Gazprom oil rig.

An armed coastguard points a gun at an activist aboard a Greenpeace boat as they attempted to disrupt the Russian oil drilling operation

The armed assault by the Russian coastguard on the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise came after activists attempted to board an oil platform to prevent it drilling in the Arctic

Water cannons were used to try and stop Greenpeace activists climbing onto the oil platform

The environmental group is campaigning against attempts by companies to extract oil from the waters of the Arctic, warning a spill would be highly environmentally damaging and that extraction of more fossil fuels will add to climate change.

Greenpeace said plans to start drilling from the Prirazlomnaya platform in the first quarter of 2014 raised the risk of an oil spill in an area that contains three nature reserves protected by Russian law.

Activists previously occupied the same platform in August 2012.