An international tribunal has ordered Russia to pay damages and costs of nearly 5.4 million euros (£4.8 million) to the Netherlands for unlawfully seizing a Greenpeace ship protesting at an oil platform in Arctic waters.
The Arctic Sunrise, sailing under a Dutch flag, was seized by Russian authorities in September 2013 during a protest against an offshore oil platform.
The 30 people on board were arrested and detained for months before being released shortly before the Sochi Olympics.
The tribunal, which ruled two years ago that the seizure breached an international treaty regulating the laws of the sea, announced the damages on Tuesday.
Greenpeace International’s general counsel, Jasper Teulings, said the ruling “emphatically upholds international law and the right to peaceful protest against oil drilling in the Arctic”.
Six Britons were among a group of 28 activists and two freelance journalists detained on the Arctic Sunrise by Russian security forces during a protest at a Gazprom drilling platform in the Arctic’s Pechora Sea.