Ben Stewart - Don't Trust, Don't Fear, Don't Beg

20th November

Well. Fairly major surprise meeting with Pavel [his lawyer]. Guard came and got me and took me to the meeting room where they were waiting with big smiles. 12 non-Russians have effectively been given bail, including SINI which has major implications for those of us in the rhibs.

[later…] 6pm news showed Anne, 3rd mate, getting bail. Really encouraging news. My questioning of Anton about the news report was a bit enthusiastic I think. He finds it hard not to show his own feelings of jealousy. Somehow I must show restraint on each release of an Arctic 30.

The next day nine more are brought to court, including Alex. There are so many photographers that it feels like walking on the red carpet, except she doesn’t feel glamorous because she’s just stepped out of prison. There are flashes going off, people barking questions. ‘Do you have a few words to say? Alex, how do you feel? Do you think you’ll get bail? Alex? Alex?’ Then she’s pushed into the cage. The judge asks her if she has anything to say. Alex tells the court: ‘Every day in prison for me is connected with the struggle. I joined Greenpeace because I care about the environment and think the Earth should be saved for future generations.’

The judge retires then returns with the verdict. The translator is whispering the words in Alex’s ear and she’s thinking, hurry up and just spit it out, please. And then the judge gets there. She says Alex has got bail.

She feels light-headed. Delirious. It’s like she’s become detached from her body and is watching herself in the cage, getting to her feet and smiling for the cameras. The whole courtroom is filled with reporters. ‘Alex, Alex. What’s your reaction? How do you feel? Have you got a message for your parents? Alex?’

21st November

The steel section masquerading as a bed base is starting to hurt my hips. And ribs. The mattress has inexorably sunk to the profile of the steel plate and is ridged. I think I also pulled a muscle in my back at gulyat playing hacky-sack with Anton.

[later…] Back from the court with bail conditions granted! Pavel told me I won’t get out of Kresty till Monday as payments are taking time to process. I’d love to be out by Friday but no go. Media presence was huge for such a small room. A mad scramble with police getting very angry with SKY NEWS team. They fully got into a scrum. Told me I was live and I did a piece. I also gave my speech about the FSB being the armed hooligans that morning, not Greenpeace. Stewey [head of the media team] was in the media pack! Great to have seen him. Really feels like a major step on the road to freedom. In the holding cell at court I saw a Column 88 stamp with swastikas each side + Russian lettering underneath. Lots of right wing thugs here I guess. I wrote ‘Nazi Scum’ above with an arrow pointing down.

[later…] Just got taken to the phone room and allowed to call home. Feckin cards only last 3 minutes and the system failed 80% of times but I got to talk to Nina and then Nell. Everybody cried a bit. She’s really really missed me and must have been hit quite hard by the whole thing. So so good to have got just those few brilliant moments though. My darling daughter. Nina was so lovely to talk to. She has been the best wife possible during these 2 months.

The campaigners are hoping the first of the activists will be freed soon. They expect it to be one of the Russians – Denis or Andrey. But at SIZO-5 a lawyer is clutching a receipt slip for the payment of a two-million-rouble bond, and she’s refusing to leave without her client. ‘This is nonsense,’ Ana Paula’s lawyer tells the governor. ‘Just release her. This procedure is crap. The judge gave her bail, we’ve paid the money. I won’t leave without her.’

And suddenly, unexpectedly, Ana Paula Maciel from Porto Alegre in Brazil is told by a guard that she’s being freed. Half an hour later, from a grey door down the side of SIZO-5, she emerges into a Russian winter’s evening, surrounded by journalists, blinking into flashbulbs, grinning with a combination of delight and shock, holding in her hands a sheet of paper on which she’s written the words ‘SAVE THE ARCTIC’.

21st November

I got bail. I am still in prison but expect to be out tomorrow or Saturday or Monday at the latest. Ana Paula’s hearing was Monday and she was out yesterday afternoon.

I was up and down all day. Finally about 3.30 (?) I came back to hear the judge (young blonde woman – mid 30s?). The judge started talking and after a bit the translator tries to keep up. Well the judge lists all the reasons why I should not get bail. It goes on for 5 minutes, but by the middle I am completely trashed. I tried to figure out why I am not being bailed, and the only reason I can think of is that as captain, they want to make an example out of me… I start to get myself mentally prepared for more prison. Then the judge starts saying all the reasons why I should be bailed. And it finally dawned on me that she had just outlined the prosecutor’s case. So my hope sprang up again. After a few minutes, my lawyers both started giving thumbs up. And then the judge says it real plain… bail is granted. I sighed, closed my eyes and looked down to the right, and an absolute blast of motor-drives went off. I was too drained for even a smile.

But now Pete is worried. He’s back in the cell and his mind is racing. He’s convinced that the others are blaming him for all this. He’s been questioning his judgement as a captain since commandos seized his ship. Shouldn’t he have got out of there as soon as the coastguard started firing warning shots? Some of the crew were kids, they never signed up to years in jail. Pete imagines them lying in their cells, waiting for release and working out how they ended up in this mess in the first place, and deciding it was his fault. They’ll be out soon and they’re going to have their say. They’re going to want to unload, and it’s all coming his way. And maybe they’re right, he thinks. Maybe they’re right.

At 2 p.m. Camila is told her time has come. She’s taken to the meeting room. She waits alone for five minutes, then the door opens and Sini appears with 26-year-old Danish sailor Anne Mie Jensen. They’re taken to the main door of the prison. They’re standing before it now. Then it swings open, and another door opens in front of it, and beyond that is a bank of cameras below a broad sky. Camila walks out. Then Anne Mie. Sini takes a step forward but she doesn’t realise the last door is so heavy. It swings back, Sini leans into it but she can’t hold it back and she’s momentarily squeezed between the prison doors in front of the cameras. She pushes again, steps into the open air, holds her arms aloft and shouts, ‘I’m free!’

It feels like being born again. She wants to run somewhere, anywhere. And she wants to hug anything with a heartbeat. A minute later they’re in the lawyer’s car, speeding down a St Petersburg street.

‘Is it okay if I open the window?’ asks Sini.

‘Yes, sure. Open it.’

So she opens the window and sticks her head through it and shouts, ‘I’m free! I’m free!’ Drivers in passing cars turn their heads, people walking on the pavement look up, they see blonde hair flapping and a woman screaming into the wind.

‘I’m free!’

The women are taken to the Peterville hotel in central St Petersburg and given keys to their rooms. In a third floor corridor Camila is fiddling with a key in the lock while Sini is next to her, jumping up and down on her heels. Behind them Anne Mie is hugging Ana Paula.