Russian investigators have indicated foreign activists facing trial for a protest against Arctic oil drilling cannot leave the country, meaning they won’t be home for Christmas despite an international court ruling, Greenpeace said yesterday.

Twenty-six foreigners from 17 countries are among the 30 people arrested on the Greenpeace icebreaker Arctic Sunrise after a protest in which environmental activists tried to scale Russia’s first offshore oil platform in the Arctic.

They face up to seven years in prison on hooliganism charges, but were released on bail last month by courts in St Petersburg and hoped to be able to go home pending trial or further action by investigators that requires their presence.

But in a letter to one of the activists, the federal Investigative Committee rejected a request for it to seek exit visas for the non-Russians, Greenpeace said.

The committee “has written to one of the 30 – Anne Mie Jensen of Denmark – indicating that they are not free to leave the country,” the Netherlands-based environmental group said in a statement.

“Lawyers for Greenpeace expect all of the non-Russian defendants to be treated in the same way by the authorities, meaning they would now be forced to stay in St Petersburg for Christmas and possibly well beyond,” it said.

The UN maritime tribunal ruled on November 22 that the Greenpeace ship and its crew must be allowed to leave Russia.

The foreign activists include citizens of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States.