THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Aug. 25 (UPI) — The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague has ordered Russia to pay damages to the Netherlands over its seizure of a ship protesting against oil drilling.
The authorities confiscated the Dutch-flagged Arctic Sunrise in September 2013. Thirty people were detained on board after activists from the Greenpeace campaign group that tried to scale a Russian oil rig, BBC News reported.
The PCA looks at cases arising out of international treaties and covers a wide range of legal issues, including disputes over territorial boundaries, human rights, international state investment and trade. Russia is a signatory to both its founding treaties.
The court found that Russia breached its obligation under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. It said that the Netherlands was “entitled to compensation (with interest) for material damage to the Arctic Sunrise.”
“The Netherlands sees freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate as public goods that are worth defending,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders who welcomed the ruling.
Russia’s treatment of the activists from 18 countries, who spent two months in detention, drew criticism from Western nations and added to already strained diplomatic relations with the Netherlands.
Criminal charges were dropped against the activists under an amnesty proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and they were released along with the ship.
Russia said on Tuesday it would not recognize the ruling, describing it as an “encouragement to non-peaceful protest at sea,” as reported by Dutch News.
“The Russian Federation has not participated in that proceeding and it still believes that the formed arbitration tribunal has no jurisdiction in this case,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, as reported by Interfax.
“It should be noted that the arbitration court’s judgment is not impeccable by a whole range of parameters and contains obvious inaccuracies, for instance, in its interpretation of Russia’s legal status as a state successor to the Soviet Union,” she added.
“After a copy of the arbitration judgment is formally received, the Russian side will study it in detail. Yet it is already possible to conclude that this judgment does not fully take into account all the aspects of the incident involving Greenpeace activities, as well as the legal norms and court practice related to this case,” Zakharova concluded.
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