Arctic Sunrise captain, US citizen Peter Wilcox arrested

The Leninsky district court of Murmansk has arrested the captain of Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, US citizen Peter Wilcox, taking him into custody for two months. As Maria Favorskaya, spokesperson for Greenpeace in Russia, told Itar-Tass, earlier the same measure of restraint was applied to another six crewmembers of Arctic Sunrise. The court in the city of Murmansk, Northern Russia, ruled not to arrest Greenpeace activist Dmitry Litvinov from Sweden. The term in custody was extended to him up to 72 hours. “Other Arctic Sunrise crewmembers faced the same court verdicts of the term in arrest for two months,” the Greenpeace spokeswoman said. Paul Ruzycki from Canada, David Haussmann from New Zealand, Francesco Pisanu from France, Tomasz Dziemianczuk from Poland and two Russians Denis Sinyakov and Roman Dolgov were put in arrest for two months. The court intends to pass verdicts against other detainees on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Russian Investigative Committee noted on Thursday that they do not rule out that the detainees for an attack on the oil platform Prirazlomnaya may be released from custody after a two-month term in arrest expires. After the role and guilt of each attacker is found it is not ruled out that the detectives will decide on their own to change the measure of restraint for a more lenient one and that not related with the deprivation of freedom before the term in arrest expires, spokesman of the Russian Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass earlier in the day. Legal action follows events on September 18 when Arctic Sunrise manouevred around the oil platform as Greenpeace activists sought to board the structure. Border Service guards prevented their bid and the ship was towed to the port of Murmansk. Detectives opened a criminal case alleging piracy but prosecution officials say the charge may be changed during the investigation.