Paul Douglas Ruzycki (Credit: Twitter/christyarctic)

Thrity activists were jailed by a court in Russia on Thursday, Sept 26.

The jail sentence was issued against the team which was protesting close to an Arctic oil platform last week. The activists' attempt to scale the Russian Arctic platform on Sept 18 was disrupted by the Russian Coast Guard. The Greenpeace ship called the Arctic Sunrise was seized by the authorities. The ship, along with the team of 30 activists, was taken to Murmansk the next day.

The Russian court denied bail for Denis Sinyakov, a Russian photographer, and another Russian, Roman Dolgov, the spokesman of Greenpeace. They were sanctioned a jail term of 2 months. A similar sentence was given to U.S. citizen Pete Willcox, the captain of the ship.

Canadian citizen Paul Douglas Ruzycki, New Zealander Jonathan Beauchamp, French Francesco Pisanu and Turkish Gizhem Akhan are also going to join their captain in the two-month jail term. Mr Ruzycki was a crew member while Mr Beauchamp was the boat mechanic. A few others were also jailed for 3 days. Alexandre Paul from Montreal was also reported to be on board. Mr Ruzycki, who is from Ontario, was the chief mate of the ship that Russian authorities seized.

Mr Ruzycki's family has not been able to be in touch with him since he was arrested. Patti Ruzycki-Stirling, Mr Ruzycki's sister, informed that she had been told that the 2-month jail sentence given to Mr Ruzycki was a preventive measure for ensuring that the did not leave Russia while the authorities were in the process of charging them appropriately.

Mr Ruzycki is a chronic patient of Lupus erythematosus, which makes him vulnerable to suffering from several difficult health symptoms if he does not receive proper medication. Ms Patti said that the family was concerned since the possibility of Mr Ruzycki receiving proper medication for the autoimmune disease seemed unlikely.

Meanwhile, GreenpeaceUK uploaded this exclusive video on YouTube, which shows Russian Special Forces confronting Greenpeace activists on Gazprom Arctic oil rig:

 Video courtesy: YouTube/GreenpeaceUK