Greenpeace activist Ubels: risk too great.

Greenpeace campaigner, Mannes Ubels, will not rejoin a similar action to that for which he was thrown in jail in Russia. "You assume that you have certain rights, and then it appears that the law is interpreted quite differently. That was a hard lesson. It's too risky for me to do that again," stated Ubels in an interview with nu.nl.Ubels was arrested on September 19, along with 29 other crew members on board the Greenpeace ship, Arctic Sunrise. The Russian authorities boarded the ship, sailing under the Dutch flag, during a protest against oil drilling in the Arctic. The Dutch Greenpeace activist, Faiza Oulahsen, was also on board and was arrested as well. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"26649","attributes":{"class":"media-image size-medium wp-image-9735","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"300","height":"224","alt":"mannes ubels"}}]] mannes ubels
Olaf Koens/ Flickr "We were well briefed and we knew what the risks were, but I underestimated the whole thing," says Ubels, who was on the ship as a ship's mechanic. If no further measures are taken against the crew, then it was worth the risk, because the protest caused quite the stir. But seven years in prison are not worth the risk, according to Ubels. The Greenpeace activist is only moderately optimistic about the lawsuit. "Everything is so illegal here, Russia violated a lot of rules; that is very frightening," stated Ubels.