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The Netherlands has asked the Hamburg-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to order Russia to release a Greenpeace protest ship and the activists aboard.
Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said that the government made the request to protect the group of 28 Greenpeace activists and two journalists who have been held since their ship the Arctic Sunrise was seized by the Russian coastguard after a protest near a Gazprom-owned oil rig on September 18.
The activists are being held in Murmansk.
They have been charged with piracy, an offence that carries a 15-year sentence in Russia.
Mr Timmermans said the request was a procedural step in an arbitration case the Dutch launched two weeks ago seeking to free the activists and their ship, which sails under the Dutch flag.
He told reporters in Luxembourg that "it will come as no surprise to the Russian Federation" that the Dutch have now asked for the tribunal to order the release pending a final decision in the case.
Greenpeace International welcomed the Dutch initiative and called on other governments whose nationals were among the detained activists "to step up their work to ensure the immediate release of the detainees."
The tribunal that the Dutch have turned to adjudicates disputes arising from interpretation or application of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Mr Timmermans said that it would likely take about a month for the tribunal to reach a decision on the application.