PLAID Cymru AM Lindsay Whittle has said he is prepared to fly to Russia to secure a Newport activist’s release from prison.

Anthony Perrett, 32, was arrested along with 29 other Greenpeace activists on the Arctic Sunrise ship on September 19 and has been held by Russian authorities on piracy charges since then.

The South Wales East AM wrote to the Russian Ambassador to the UK calling for Mr Perrett’s release, but was “annoyed” with the reply.

He said: “I said in my letter to the Ambassador that I was prepared to fly to Russia to discuss this issue with a view to securing Mr Perrett’s release and that still stands. I am annoyed at the response of the Russian Embassy because the continued detention of these protestors, including Mr Perrett, represents an over-reaction and is totally unacceptable.

“Why couldn’t the Russian authorities give them a stiff warning and send them on their way home? This episode is damaging the reputation of Russia and, I hope, it still may be possible for Mr Perrett and the others to be home for Christmas.”

In his reply, Artem Kozhin, the Press Secretary at the Russian Embassy in London, said while the embassy empathised “with the feelings of the relatives and friends of those arrested”, justice must be done after the activists’ “dangerous provocation”.

Mr Kozhin said while the Investigative Committee of Russia believe the Russian Criminal Code had been broken, they also felt three articles of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea were violated too.He wrote: “All the detainees have been treated in compliance with regular judicial procedures applied both to Russian and foreign citizens. Nobody has been discriminated.”

Earlier this week Mr Perrett, a tree surgeon and former Caldicot town councillor, and the other activists were being moved from Murmansk to St Petersburg by prison train.

Ben Ayliffe, Greenpeace International Arctic campaigner, said: “We don’t yet know if the relocation of these wrongfully accused people will see an improvement in terms of their detention conditions and basic human rights.

“We are doing everything in our power to ensure that the Arctic 30 are transported in a humane way.”

Newport MPs Paul Flynn and Jessica Morden have sought information on Mr Perrett’s condition. Mr Flynn has met the Russian ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko.

Ms Morden told a Westminster Hall debate Mr Perrett’s partner Zaharah Ally was struggling to cope waiting for news.