Arctic Sunrise: Inside Greenpeace Crew's Jail

By Katie Stallard, Russia Correspondent, in Murmansk

Sky News has obtained the first pictures from inside the Russian detention centre where 30 Greenpeace protesters and journalists are being held.

The photos show two of the cells where the crew of the Arctic Sunrise have been detained since their arrest at gunpoint near a Russian oil rig last month.

They were protesting Russia's plans for Arctic oil exploration when their ship was boarded by the country's security forces and towed to the northern port of Murmansk.

The group included two freelance journalists.

Originally charged with piracy, the allegations have since been downgraded to the lesser charge of "hooliganism", which still carries a potential jail term of up to seven years.

Two single beds packed into a small space in the Murmansk detention centre

Several of the group have said they are struggling with the cold in their cells and requested warm clothes.

But when confronted about conditions inside, the head of the detention centre told Sky News British prisons were "soft".

We managed to get rare access inside the prison in Murmansk to speak to the governor and raise the detainees' concerns.

In response to a series of questions, he laughed and said: "In Great Britain your prisons are soft."

He referred all other concerns to the relevant consular officials.

We weren't allowed to film inside and were accompanied by guards at all times.

Entering through a checkpoint you find a pretty rundown Soviet-era detention centre.

Freelance journalist Mr Bryan looked tired in court

The cells are housed in a series of concrete blocks, separated by barbed wire and security fences.

I passed a number of prisoners in the corridor, wearing the standard issue black prison uniforms, but they weren't allowed to speak to me and I wasn't allowed to talk to them.

It is relatively mild in Murmansk this week for October, but thick snow already lines the streets, and the courtyard inside the prison is iced over.

Temperatures in the winter months can drop to minus 30.

For six weeks from December it is completely dark.

Outside the prison, we met friends and colleagues from Greenpeace queuing to bring the group food and basic supplies.

Getting the deliveries in means waiting in the cold for much of the night, and navigating a series of bureaucratic rules that require every vegetable to be itemised, and then sliced open by prison staff before it can be accepted.

One inmate has managed to create a makeshift clothes line

Each prisoner is allowed up to 30kg each month from a strict list of approved items.

Rashid Alimov, who had travelled up from the Greenpeace office in St Petersburg said they had brought fresh vegetables, chocolate, coffee, and items such as earplugs the prisoners have requested.

They have already sent in portable water heaters so they can boil water in their cells.

"Cold is a problem for some of the people I know," he said.

"They were asking to have a hat so they can sleep with the hat on, and to have gloves so they can sleep in them."

Irina Paikachova works for a local human rights organisation and has been visiting the prisoners regularly.

She told us many of them are finding the conditions inside very difficult and that all of the female Greenpeace protesters are being held in solitary confinement.

A narrow bench and table make up the 'dining area'

She was able to speak to one of the British activists, Phil Ball, from Oxford, on Tuesday.

He had been given special dispensation as it was his grandmother's funeral.

She said his biggest concern was not his own physical welfare, but that of his family in the UK.

"For him it's much, much more difficult to be far from his family when his children will be without him, maybe many years," Ms Paikachova explained.

He sent out a picture that he has drawn of the inside of his cell.

Irina said that he was feeling more hopeful that this might soon be over.

As we left the prison piped music was playing, presumably for the benefit of the inmates - perhaps the lyrics hadn't been translated into Russian, or the guards have a taste for irony ... the song was What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger.

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