The US captain of the Greenpeace ship seized by the Russian coast guard has described the stress and fear he and the other 29 people on board felt when they were thrown into Russian jails, with no idea when they would get out.
Most of them were released on bail last week after spending two months behind bars. Only Australian Colin Russell remains in detention.
"The hardest thing was the uncertainty, the anxiety, the damn fear," Peter Willcox, a veteran Greenpeace activist told The Associated Press on Sunday.
"Everybody lost weight during the first three weeks, and not because of food, but because of stress."
They were initially charged with piracy for protesting at a Russian oil platform in Arctic waters and if convicted were looking at up to 15 years in prison.
"That changes my life, that changes anybody's life," said Willcox, who is 60.
"I won't see my mother and father again, they are not going to live another 10 or 15 years. My children will be grown up with children of their own."
Investigators have since said they no longer consider the protest to have been piracy, but all 30 still face charges of hooliganism, which could send them to prison for up to seven years.
Greenpeace lawyers are optimistic that the foreigners will be able to leave Russia pending trial, but there has been no indication of how soon this could happen. Four of those arrested are Russian citizen, while the rest come from 17 other countries.
Greenpeace will continue to stage oil rig protests despite having 30 activists taken prisoner by the Russian authorities, one of the Britons freed from detention said.
Frank Hewetson said that, despite his ordeal, the organisation's method of scaling oil rigs in the Arctic would happen again.
But he says he can't for certain say they will return to Russia.
He said he had 23 years of experience and was "pretty good" at carrying out direct forms of action.
He said it had to be done safely, with the right equipment and training.
"I think it will happen again for sure," Hewetson said.
"I'm just not going to comment about whether it will happen in Russia, I just don't have the mental head space to make that sort of decision at the moment.
"But I personally want to go back to part of the Arctic."
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