MURMANSK, October 8 (RAPSI) – The state prosecutor asked the Murmansk regional court to reject the appeal against the arrest of Denis Sinyakov, a prominent Russian freelance photographer who was among the Greenpeace activists during the Gazprom drilling platform raid, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

Murmansk Region court is hearing the appeals against the arrest of two activists detained during the raid. Earlier, a similar appeal filed by the defense of Arctic Sunrise’s doctor Yekaterina Zaspa was rejected.

On October 4, Presidential Human Rights Council posted on its website a statement, in which the council called the detention of Denis Sinyakov a direct violation of Russia’s law on mass media, which protects the rights of journalists, including freelancers, when they work in their professional capacity.

The council said Sinyakov was on board the Arctic Sunrise icebreaker on assignment from Lenta.ru media outlet and did not take direct part in protest action on September 18 when Greenpeace activists tried to scale the Prirazlomnaya oil platform in the Pechora Sea.

The Arctic Sunrise ship was seized by Russian border guards on September 19 in international waters, within Russia's exclusive economic zone, a day after two Greenpeace activists scaled the Prirazlomnaya drilling rig in the Pechora Sea, the southeastern part of the Barents Sea. Greenpeace claimed that the ship was held under armed guard.

The platform, owned by Gazprom Neft Shelf, a subsidiary of Russian energy giant Gazprom, is the first ice-resistant stationary oil platform in the world set to produce offshore Arctic oil.

Greenpeace and other environmental groups oppose drilling for oil in the Arctic because they say that it is currently impossible to sufficiently clean up potential oil spills in the region, and that such drilling cannot be economically viable without state subsidies.