By VITNIJA SALDAVA
A Russian police officer guards police vans believed to be transporting Greenpeace activists to a prison in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013. Jailed Greenpeace activists have been transferred from Russia’s far north to the city of St. Petersburg, officials confirmed. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
Russia Greenpeace
A prison car, which was attached to a passenger train, is pulled away from a railway station in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013. Greenpeace International ship, Arctic Sunrise, was seized by Russian security forces after some activists tried to scale an offshore oil platform. The 30 activists have been charged with hooliganism by the Russian authorities. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
Russia Greenpeace
Russian policemen stand guards a prison wagon at a train station in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013. Greenpeace International ship, Arctic Sunrise, was seized by Russian security forces after some activists tried to scale an offshore oil platform. The 30 activists have been charged with hooliganism by the Russian authorities. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
Russia Greenpeace
A Russian policeman stands as authorities prepare to transfer detained Greenpeace International activists to a prison in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013. Greenpeace ship, Arctic Sunrise, was seized by Russian security forces after some activists tried to scale an offshore oil platform. The 30 activists have been charged with hooliganism by the Russian authorities. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
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ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — The 30 people arrested following a Greenpeace protest at an Arctic oil rig were transferred to St. Petersburg on Tuesday, Greenpeace International and Russian transport officials said.
A sealed wagon attached to a passenger train transported the group from the northern city of Murmansk to St. Petersburg’s Ladozhsky Station, the officials said.
While Russia has not given an official reason for the transfer, it comes after widespread international protests over the arrest of the 28 crew members, and a Russian photographer and a British videographer who were working for Greenpeace.
St. Petersburg is a more accessible destination for the activists’ lawyers and family members than Murmansk, a far-flung city north of the Arctic Circle that gets little light during its long winter.
Greenpeace International Arctic campaigner Ben Ayliffe said in a statement that the organization did not know which pre-detention center the activists would be taken to in St. Petersburg.
The ship, the “Arctic Sunrise,” was seized by the Russian coast guard on Sept. 18 and all crewmembers were arrested after staging a protest outside of an oil rig owned by Russia’s Gazprom state energy giant.
In late October, Russia’s Investigative Committee said it would drop piracy charges, which carry a sentence of up to 15 years. The 30 detainees are now charged with hooliganism, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years.
Greenpeace says it has received no official information about the piracy charges being dropped.
