The one thing that kept him calm was the sound of the women's cell, which was right next to his. His lawyer advised him to bring an empty bottle because they weren't allowed to go to the bathroom. The activists were transported on an old prisoner train car where Willcox slept on a hard metal slab. The journey down from Murmansk, he said, was even more difficult than jail. But by the same token I'm not going to jail for 10 or 15 years over a demonstration,' he said.Įarlier this month, Russian authorities announced the Greenpeace activists would be transferred to St Petersburg's notorious Kresty Prison, which holds the dubious distinction of being Europe's oldest. I am sincerely deeply worried about the future of my kids. He says even if he had known it would result in a two month jail sentence, he would still would have gotten on that boat.īut was it worth up to a decade and a half in prison? No way. Willcox is passionate about the environment and deeply fearful of the threat of climate change. Those months in jail, with no end visible and the threat of many more years in prison looming, provided much time for self-reflection. Some crewmembers reported being locked in for up to three hours. When he was being transported, he was locked in a wagon divided into pitch-dark partitions half the size of a phone booth. We hardly saw each other enough to speculate,' he said. 'We were really isolated, we really didn't know what was going on. But he was only allowed to meet with his lawyer after a month and allowed to call home once a month.

Willcox said he tried to make nice with the guards, who he said recognized he posed no threat and looked after him well. I don't mind telling you I was scared,' he said. 'Ninety percent of that weight came off from anxiety and fear.

Greenpeace Captain by Peter Willcox