HAMBURG, Germany, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- A British judge has been named to head an international tribunal to hear a case against Russia's detention of Greenpeace activists, officials said.
The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea appointed David Anderson to hear the case filed by the Dutch government, which wants to end Russian legal proceedings against the activists and to gain the release of the activists and their ship, RIA Novosti reported Monday.
The activists had sailed aboard the Arctic Sunrise to an offshore oil rig owned by the state-run Gazprom. They were arrested Sept. 18 when they tried to scale the rig and charged with piracy and hooliganism.
The hearing is due to begin Wednesday, but the Russian foreign ministry said it would not send any representatives because it did not accept the settlement procedures and mandatory court rulings.
Russia ratified the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1997 that established the tribunal.
