Greenpeace Activists Charged with Piracy

The New York Times reports here Reuters reports here, Eugene Kontorovich reacts and has analysis here.  My previous posts on this issue appear here and here.  As the Times notes, this prosecution is inconsistent with Vladimir Putin's previous remarks that the activists were "obviously not pirates."

Acccording to the Times:

The lodging of such serious charges in the Greenpeace case illustrates how far apart the Russian government remains from Western governments and nongovernmental organizations on issues like freedom of speech and civil disobedience. Russian courts ignored a similar international outcry last year when they sentenced members of the group Pussy Riot to two years in prison for protesting in a church.

The piracy charges carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. It was not clear how many of the 28 members of the crew and the two journalists who were aboard the Arctic Sunrise would ultimately be charged; all of them have been detained for investigation. The court in Murmansk that is handling the matter adjourned on Wednesday with the cases of the ship’s American captain, Peter Willcox, and a number of others still pending. Lawyers for Greenpeace said the hearing could continue with more charges lodged on Thursday.

Kontorovich notes that "such clearly abusive and politicized piracy charges are quite unprecedented in modern history" and argues that this signals that Russia is claiming superpower status and is unafraid of retaliation.

It will certainly be interesting to see how this case develops and how the United States and United Nations react.  Kontorovich encourages the government to challenge Russia's action as a violation of both international and customary treaty law.  Whatever happens, this case will add a notable dimension to modern piracy cases and law.

Students interested in international law would do well to explore this.  I know that if I were still slating articles, a paper piracy would get my attention pretty effectively.