A Russian court granted bail to three foreign Greenpeace activists today detained for a protest against oil drilling, the first non-Russians to be set free from 30 people arrested over the action, the group said.
A total of six crewmembers of Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship will be released after two months in detention, but still face trial on charges that risk several years in jail.
Ana Paula Maciel of Brazil, New Zealander David John Haussmann and Argentina's Miguel Hernan Perez Orsi will be freed pending payment of a two-million-ruble (USD 61,400) bail, Greenpeace said, citing the decision of a Saint Petersburg court.
Yesterday, two courts in the former imperial capital said bail would be granted to three Russian activists but ordered Australian activist Colin Russell to remain in pre-trial detention until February 24.
Freelance photographer Denis Sinyakov, spokesman Andrei Allakhverdov and Greenpeace ship doctor Yekaterina Zaspa also need to post bail of two million rubles to be released.
A Greenpeace spokeswoman said it remained unclear what motivated the judge to order the extension to the Australian's detention.
"It remains a mystery to us," Violetta Ryabko told AFP.
She said the group had collected enough money to ask the courts to release all 30 activists on bail of two million rubles each.
"In the space of two mornings we have had good news and bad, and the good news comes with a warning," Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo said in a statement.
"We still have no idea what conditions our friends will endure when they are released from jail, whether they will be held under house arrest or even allowed outside."
Yesterday, pre-trial detention was extended until February 24 for Russell, a 59-year-old Australian.
Naidoo said the group remained "baffled and heartbroken that our colleague Colin was refused bail and sent back to prison for three months."
The ruling means he may remain in jail through the Winter Olympics that Russia is hosting in Sochi on February 7-23 next year.
A picture released by the environmental group showed Maciel breaking into a smile as she heard the ruling from her metal defendant's cage.
Appearing in court yesterday, the 31-year-old campaigner held a number of posters reading: "I love Russia but let me go home" and "Save the Arctic.
