The last of the Arctic 30 gets bail

Posted by Esther Freeman — 28 November 2013 at 5:48pm - Comments
Colin Russell at his detention hearing in St Petersburg
All rights reserved. Credit: Dmitri Sharomov / Greenpeace

Amazing news! This morning Colin Russell was in court in St Petersburg to appeal the decision that he should not be released on bail. Not even four minutes after we learned that his hearing had started, news came that Colin had been granted bail.

The support team in St Petersburg prepaid the bail money and it is hoped that Colin will be released before the weekend.

Over the past week, upon hearing that Colin was the only one of the Arctic 30 not to be released on bail, more than 100,000 people signed the petition for his release and sent messages of support to him and his wife Christine.

Christine, who was today flying to Russia today with their daughter Madeleine, said:

"This is such wonderful news – my daughter and I are one step closer to being in the arms of my darling Col. I am so relieved that my beautiful, peaceful man will soon be out of detention. I want to thank everyone for their wonderful support during this nightmare of a time. It remains a really difficult time and it's only when all of the Arctic 30 are free to go home will we be able to properly celebrate. What I am hoping for is that Col, Maddy and I will be home in Woodbridge together by Christmas."

Despite today's good news, this is not over yet. These 28 activists and two freelance journalists have finally been freed from prison and reunited with friends and family, but they still stand accused of a crime they did not commit. They took peaceful action on behalf of us all, standing up against destructive Arctic oil drilling and the onslaught of climate change. Charging them with hooliganism is both an insult and an outrage and so no one will truly be celebrating until they've been allowed to return home and the charges against them have been dropped.

If you'd like to send a message of support to Colin, or any of the Arctic 30, you can do so here. Or if you haven't done so already, you can sign the petition to the Russian ambassador. Let's free the Arctic 30 for good and bring them home. 

About Esther Freeman

I'm a proud E17-er and (perodically) dedicated Greenpeace Waltham Forest volunteer. I'm passionate about people power and believe in cat videos for social good.

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