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Greenpeace activists in jail

The thirty men and women detained by Russian authorities for their role in a Greenpeace stunt against an Arctic oil platform are being moved from a detention centre in Murmansk to prison in St Petersberg, Greenpeace said.

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Hooligan charges 'still wildly disproportionate'

Greenpeace have confirmed that their activists have had the piracy charges against them dropped, but hit out at Russian authorities for their ongoing imprisonment, saying the charges are still "wildly disproportionate."

The Arctic 30 are no more hooligans than they were pirates. This is still a wildly disproportionate charge that carries up to seven years in jail. It represents nothing less than an assault on the very principle of peaceful protest.

Those brave men and women went to the Arctic armed with nothing more than a desire to shine a light on a reckless business. They should be with their families, not in a prison in Murmansk.

We will contest the trumped up charge of hooliganism as strongly as we contested the piracy allegations. They are both fantasy charges that bear no relation to reality. The Arctic 30 protested peacefully against Gazprom's dangerous oil drilling and should be free.

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