December 2, 2018
The district court of the Slovakian town Prievizda issued a resolution to arrest 12 activists of Greenpeace international environmental organisation, who had been retained earlier during their anti-government protest in the territory of the coal shaft in Novaki town. On Wednesday 28 of November, the Greenpeace activists climbed up to the shaft headgear and spread a placade that had a slogan against coal mining in the territory of Slovakia. Later on they were arrested. The shaft operations were to be stopped for 5 hours due to the actions of the activists.
According to the judge, there are concerns that should these activists be freed before the court session, they may participate at similar actions.
“The decision of the Slovakian court to keep the Greenpeace activists under arrest before the court session is not acceptable,” says the press-release on Greenpeace site. It also informs that the arrested activists of citizens of Slovakia, Check Republic, Finland, Germany and Belgium. “Now, the activists are under threat of some ungrounded accusations and there is a risk of imprisonment up to 5 years,” – noted the Greenpeace people, and added that the lawyers of the arrested people will appeal the court resolution.
“As a rule, as a measure arresting is applied in relation to dangerous criminals, who may continue their criminal activities or run away from justice,” announced Ivana Kohutova, Greenpeace representative, she especially noted that nobody had been hurt and no damage was caused to the property as a result of the protest action.
However, the court is of the opinion that the action of these activists caused threat to safety of miners, who were in the mining face. They note that due to serious load, the structure may have failed.
In February, Greenpeace activists were sentenced by court in France for their trespassing to the territory of a Nuclear Power Plant.
https://ria.ru/world/20181203/1538551103.html
Translated into English by Muhiddin Ganiev