On Thin Ice: Putin v Greenpeace (2024) s01e05 Episode Script

1
This program me contains
some strong language
DOG BARKS
This is the place you don't want
to end up, definitely.
I've been inside of many prisons
and I know how the pre-trial
detention centre is in Murmansk.
It is designed to break you.
You need to survive,
but it makes something
with you for the whole life.
It was an incredibly daring mission.
It needed to be done.
But the plan, I think
you could say, went to shit.
GUNFIRE
NEWS REPORT: High drama
on the high seas tonight.
Russian forces have seized
control of a Greenpeace ship.
It felt like being in the middle
of a James Bond film.
15 years stuck in a Russian prison.
How did I get here?
IN RUSSIAN:
Dealing with Putin, this was
a different game altogether.
There's, like, a ticking
time bomb here.
How the hell are we
going to get them out?
they worry about co-workers
who are sitting in a Russian jail
in a port by the Arctic Sea.
Our 30 activists and friends,
they were facing really
serious charges.
And, yeah, you worry.
You worry about how people
are going to react.
Most of these people know
Frank Hewetson well.
To see him with the prospect
of being in jail
for 15 years is really
heart-breaking.
Frank, he was a good friend of mine.
I've been in loads of scrapes
with Frank.
I thought, you know,
"He's going to be
"He's going to be strong in there."
So, when I was told that Frank might
even have had a heart attack,
that was a real bolt from the blue.
There was a period of us
being really scared.
You know, we didn't know what
had happened.
I get taken to
the General Murmansk Hospital
and I'm put into a wheelchair
and we're bustling through
the corridors
but I'm starting to come
back into myself a little bit.
You know, this is not a prison cell,
I'm not looking at big steel bars.
Tests showed that my heart was fine.
Eventually, I get to
the chief psychiatric doctor
of the whole hospital,
and he can speak English.
And I said, "Look, man, I'm having
real trouble keeping it together."
In the end, turns out I had
a very close shave
with having a total
nervous breakdown.
There were lots of rumours.
We weren't really sure
what had happened to him.
But at some point that afternoon
we heard, "He's OK.
"He's heading back to Sizo-1
OK, deep breath.
But it still left this indelible
mark on the campaign.
You know, things might have stepped
up a tempo from us, even then.
We really had to get them
out of there.
We knew that we had to bring some
pressure to bear on the Russians.
We have to have people
in the Kremlin thinking,
"ls this worth it to us,
keeping them in jail?"
The aim was to keep them
in the news.
So, we're sitting
in the Room of Doom.
At one point, somebody said,
"There is a route
"by which we could actually smuggle
letters out from the Arctic 30."
We could really use that.
So, we got messages through this
secret route to the Arctic 30.
Ancl people took big risks,
and letters started coming out.
"When it is snowing,
I think about the Arctic,
"and it gives me strength.
" | t gives this all meaning."
It really strengthened the certainty
thatl had
in that we had been doing
the right thing.
"Being in prison is like
slowly dying."
"You literally wish your life away
and mark off the days."
It was just such an amazing way
to keep them in the news.
Ancl then we get this letter from
Phil that's different.
The letter's something like,
"When Thomas the Tank Engine's
friend Harold dropped in for tea
"the other clay, I managed to get
some pictures of it.
"They would be really good
and very exciting."
Ancl then, like, "SD."
Like, this bat shit crazy stuff.
It's like, "OK, I think Phil's
trying to tell us something here."
So, it's like,
" | s it Harold the helicopter?"
Ancl then, like, SD - it was like,
micro SD,
you know, which is, like,
a kind of small camera card.
Oh, my God.
I think that Phil filmed
the boarding,
and he's still got the SD card.
Ancl from our point of view,
this was a big deal.
So, our suspicion was that
the boarding
was actually pretty brutal,
where we can tell
who the pirates are
and who the peaceful protestors are,
and Phil's got footage.
We need to find a way
to get this out.
DOG BARKING
I'd hidden the SD card with
the footage in my shoe.
I've inadvertently smuggled
the footage into a prison.
This is the only copy
of that footage.
I've been searched several times,
and they haven't managed
to find the footage.
It's still in my shoe.
Sitting in that detention cell,
I knew that the date was coming up
for a big court case.
The ITLOS trial - the International
Tribunal of the Law of the Sea.
A United Nations tribunal
where they would decide
whether Russia had acted unlawfully.
And if they could see them boarding
the ship with armed soldiers,
it could hold the key to us
getting out.
An international tribunal ruling
that Russia shouldn't have seized
the Sunrise would be a big enough
deal to apply real pressure
on Russia to release them.
And so that's why we were so keen
to get hold of this little
micro SD card.
But I'll tell you who was really
excited about that footage
was our legal team.
So, Daniel Simons, he was in charge
of the legal team,
and he's sent to Murmansk very early
on to marshal a legal response.
The boarding was illegal.
The Arctic Sunrise is a Dutch ship.
Under international law,
the Dutch government has the right
for this ship to sail
without interference
in international waters.
I proposed to the Dutch government
that the only way to secure
the freedom of the ship
and the crew would be to go before
the International Tribunal
for the Law of the Sea to seek
a court order to that effect.
Ancl obviously the footage really
had the potential to influence
the outcome of the case.
I needed to get the footage out
before the ITLOS tribunal,
but how the hell am I going
to get this out?
NEWS REPORT: The Greenpeace ship
Arctic Sunrise
has now been towed to a fjord
outside the port of Murmansk
in northern Russia.
The immediate fate of
the BO-strong crew
now depends on Russian prosecutors.
So, during this period, we had,
in fact,
two ongoing parallel
legal proceedings.
In addition to the International
Tribunal for the Law of the Sea,
we had the criminal investigation
that was ongoing into piracy
for the Russian courts against
the Arctic 30.
NEWS REPORT: Each could be facing
up to 15 years in prison.
Under Russian law, if you've been
sent into pre-trial detention,
you have the right to appeal
against that decision,
so we lodge an appeal with
the Murmansk regional court.
Greenpeace activists are clearly
not pirates, as President Putin
We understood from the start that if
a decision was taken in the Kremlin
to release the 30, it would be
expressed through the courts.
The appeal hearing was our very
best shot
at getting the 30 out
before the end of the initial
two-month detention period.
But when I was told that each person
needed to have their own lawyer
my heart sank.
Murmansk is a small town.
The population is, I think,
less than 300,000,
and there's a limit to how many
good criminal defence lawyers
you can find there.
I remember the first time
I met my lawyer.
This guy came in with
a golden necklace,
unbuttoned shirt,
with this over-the-top Armani belt.
And then he started talking to me
like he knew me for years.
He was like, "Faiza, Faiza, listen,
"I offered them a lot of money
to get you out.
"I even offered them my car -
and I have an expensive car -
"but they still don't want to
release you."
And I was like, "Who are you,
and are you actually my lawyer?"
I think there was an expectation
that we should hire
the very best criminal defence
lawyers in Russia.
But what you don't want in that
situation is a lot of prima Donnas
who are not willing to act
as a team.
Overall, I was really impressed.
The quality of the lawyers in Russia
was excellent.
IN RUSSIAN:
However, most of the lawyers
didn't speak any English,
and, of course, we set about
trying to find interpreters.
We were very fortunate
with people who we found.
Very brave Russian people.
I first heard about the Greenpeace
arrest in the news.
I thought, like, "Wow, this is like,
a really huge international scandal,
"and it's happening in my hometown."
So, Tanya, I suppose just to start
with, just tell us who you are
and, you know, what your connection
is with Greenpeace.
OK. I'm an activist from Murmansk.
When I heard about the arrest
of Arctic Sunrise,
I asked them what I can do,
and they said,
"Can you be a translator
between lawyers and prisoners?"
I was ready to do anything to
help Greenpeace,
because Putin pissed me off
already very a lot.
TANYA LAUGHS
2012, I was involved in the protests
against the falsified elections.
I know many people were imprisoned
for their political activities.
Since that time, that's my life,
to be active against injustice.
Meeting Tanya for the first time,
it was amazing.
In a Russian jail, I couldn't
understand a bloody thing.
Most of the time, you know,
Tanya would just be translating
what was being said legally.
But we just chatted about stuff
that's not prison-related, as well.
I find out Tanya's nonbinary,
they're in a punk band.
I started to really get a feel for
the fact that Tanya was pretty cool.
And I start to think about
the SD card.
We were getting letters smuggled
in and out of the prison
but the SD card is so much
more important.
If they discovered it,
we didn't have another copy.
The only way that I can get it out,
I think,
is either the lawyer
or the translator.
And I'm not 100% sure
about the lawyer.
He might be an FSB agent.
But can I trust Tanya?
I don't know what an undercover
FSB agent looks like.
How deep undercover do they go?
I don't know, I've never
met one before.
But I feel reasonably convinced
that they don't look like that.
It looks like the Russian
authorities are at the moment
moving in the direction that we saw
with the Pussy Riot demonstration,
where they clamped down very hard
on protest,
Though I suppose it's still possible
that the Russians
could step back from the brink
in the face of overwhelming bad
publicity that may flow
from putting Greenpeace
activists on trial.
We knew we had to keep them
in the public eye
before these bail hearings
start happening.
But this is the tricky thing, right,
cos if you're Greenpeace,
you need a bad guy to attack.
You need to create confrontation.
But the advice was,
"We are not at war with Putin."
and if it's not going to be Putin,
who's it going to be?
Ancl the obvious thing was Gazprom,
which was the company that owned
the Russian oil rig.
They sponsor the UEFA Champions
League, they're just everywhere.
Gazprom is our proxy for Putin.
When we attack Gazprom,
we're attacking Putin,
but we give Putin this wide
turning circle.
Right, we're going to go after
Gazprom everywhere where they exist.
Protests outside art galleries,
shutting down petrol stations,
protests outside
international headquarters.
This was an integral part
of keeping them in the news.
Then, soon after, there's
a UEFA Champions League tie.
This game, it's on TV
all over the place.
just before kick-off, it was like,
"Go, go, go."
This huge banner floated down,
it stops the game.
It felt to us like we had made
a significant intervention.
NEWS REPORT: Greenpeace activists
interrupted a football game
in Switzerland. They descended from
the stadium roof,
unveiling banners with slogans
against Gazprom,
a sponsor of the game.
The banners called for
the 30 activists held in Russia
to be released.
IN RUSSIAN:
I needed to get the footage
out before the ITLOS tribunal.
It was a vital piece of evidence.
I knew Tanya was my last chance.
I was sitting with Phil
and he informed me that he has
some SD card with something on it,
and asked if I can get it out.
First of all, I was thinking,
"Where the fuck you can hide
the SD card in prison?"
TANYA LAUGHS
Phil asked me if it's OK with me.
I think it's difficult to get out.
You have security check and so on.
This could be quite a trouble.
I'm aware of the risk to Tanya,
but what other options do we have?
It's a big risk
if I would be caught.
I really need to think
about what to do.
If it was found out that
I have the SD card,
probably I will be arrested.
Ancl there would, of course,
be a high chance of torture.
Yeah, it's
Erm
It's a lot.
But I thought, "Finally I have
a moment
"to do something really brave."
I was ready to do anything which can
bring more attention to this case.
So, the next time the lawyer comes,
in comes Tanya.
Tanya's on board.
It was It was electric.
But how to smuggle it out?
Whenever we met, there was
always a prison guard
immediately outside the door.
So there's no way I can
just hand it over.
And I went back to my cell to
twiddle my thumbs.
And it just suddenly dawned on me.
The way to do it was to put
it in a matchbox.
I think it was quite a smart
solution to choose the matchbox,
because inside prison nearly
everybody's smoking.
So, I made a little false bottom,
put the SD card in there,
and I closed it all up.
It was indiscernible
from a normal matchbox.
This was like extreme
Blue Peter skills.
Everything was ready to go the next
time Tanya comes in.
DOG BARKING
I remember there was a lot
resting on that appeal hearing.
Stuck in a cell on your own,
you catch on to any little
bit of hope you can to survive.
My lawyer indicated
that there's the chance
that we might be released.
I kind of clung on to that.
Before the appeal,
we were hearing two stories.
That it's all going to be
over soon,
Putin's made his point,
they're going to get released,
sit tight.
But we were also getting
credible intelligence saying,
"No, Putin has decided to send
a message with this
"..and it's possible that they're
going to go down for years."
My lawyer, in the beginning
I didn't trust him.
But in the end, every time my lawyer
would pay me a visit
that would be the moment
I would feel human again.
Because I had somebody to talk to.
He ended up being my best friend.
And I remember, I said to him,
"just tell me the truth
"..are they going to let us out
or no?"
He said to me, "Listen, Faiza,
it has become a showcase.
"They can open the door,
tell you you're free to go,
"or prolong the detention period.
"Anything can happen."
CAMERAS CLICK
On the morning of the appeal,
I had a mixed feeling of foreboding
and a bit of hope.
Maybe this was a clay when
the solution was going to come.
There was a lot of media presence.
It really gave the feeling
that the Russian authorities
would feel that the eyes
of the world were on them.
TH EY SPEAK RUSSIAN
NEWS REPORT: The principal argument
of the activists
is that, first of all,
they can't be pirates,
because they weren't
attacking a ship.
I've been in jail for 22 days
for a crime I didn't commit.
They're also arguing that they
were detained illegally
in international waters.
They argue that the charges
against them are incorrect.
We do not deserve to be
treated like this.
The lawyers delivered
a really strong argument,
and then the judge retired
to deliberate.
It was a nervous wait.
TANYA: I was in the court,
and the judge went out.
it just was the super clear
proof of this, like
It's called in Russian
telephone justice.
Like, somebody important called to
the judge, told them the decision.
IN RUSSIAN:
When the first judge returned
and announced that the appeal had
been rejected,
my heart sank, cos I knew that
the template had been set
for all 30 members of the group.
JUDGE SPEAKS RUSSIAN
One by one, the activists have been
brought to court
to sit in these cages while their
lawyers ask for bail.
And one by one they've been denied
and sent back to prison,
where they've already spent
three weeks.
I remember a real feeling
of injustice,
and a sense that we were going to be
in this for a lot longer now.
I felt defeated.
I thought, "This is it.
"We're going to be here for years."
Your hopes are kind of
crushed all over again.
NEWS REPORT: Today,
the Dutch government,
under whose flag
the Arctic Sunrise sails,
will go to the International
Maritime Court in Hamburg
to try to get it back.
DANIEL: It was clear at that point
in time
that the International Tribunal
for the Law of the Sea
was really the last hope to get
them out of detention.
Please be seated.
We were still trying to get
that footage from Phil.
We wanted to be able to show
the international tribunal
who were the pirates.
We'd known that the ITLOS
hearing was happening.
I had to get the footage out now.
It had to be today.
There was a guard on the door,
but I had my back to him.
And I think, "I've just got
to do this."
I hand over, theatrically,
this now magic matchbox.
I wanted to get across that it's not
just a matchbox you've got here.
Ancl this moment was, like, bingo.
I know there is a SD card inside.
I just put it into my pocket.
Now I have it.
It was a lot of tension.
What if today there is a prison
guard making a complete search?
I was nervous, of course.
And then the lawyer and Tanya left.
Time to hope and pray.
The 1972 international regulations
do not permit states
to board a foreign vessel.
The Dutch lawyers presented
the case.
We hoped the footage would arrive,
but ultimately we didn't think
it would.
The arrest and detention of the crew
of the Arctic Sunrise
is not only a breach
of the law of the sea,
but also of international
human rights law.
I felt like, "OK, as fast as
possible, go out, go out, go out."
Have a really big trembling inside.
If I go out one door, and then
there was another cage door.
Next, metal detector.
I knew that this one, if I cross
this line, then it's clone.
I thought, "I mustn't take the SD
card through the metal detector."
I put my cigarettes
and match box aside,
and then I pass through.
They check your bags, search me
then it's clone.
I got outside, everything was
so bright.
Victory.
The tribunal will now withdraw
to deliberate.
When I emerged from the courtroom,
a colleague came up to me and said,
"There's something important that
you should see."
NEWS REPORT: Greenpeace has released
previously unseen footage
taken when its ship was seized by
armed Russian security officers.
So, the legal team give it
to the Dutch lawyers.
It felt like a major victory.
Stuck one to 'em.
Ancl now we can only sit there
and wait.
Sitting inside my cell, hoped
and prayed that it would work.