Marion Cotillard joins cage demonstration calling for release of Greenpeace activists

French actress Marion Cotillard spent her Friday (15Nov13) in a cage on the streets of Paris as she joined fellow environmental campaigners to demand the release of 30 Greenpeace protesters incarcerated in Russia.

The so-called Arctic 30 group, which includes two journalists, was arrested in September (13) and charged on suspicion of piracy and hooliganism after holding a demonstration against oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean.

The jailed activists, who were originally held in the city of Murmansk, were reported on Monday (11Nov13) to have been transported to pre-trial detention centers in St. Petersburg, although officials failed to give a reason for the move, sparking concerns for their safety.

Earlier this week (begs11Nov13), Sir Paul McCartney penned a letter to Vladimir Putin, urging the Russian president to intervene and help the detainees.

Now Cotillard, an outspoken Greenpeace activist, has added her voice to the cause and taken part in a peaceful demonstration outside the Palais Royal complex in the heart of Paris.

Standing silently inside the cage with other protesters, who were all dressed in red, she held up a plaque which declared: "I am a climate defender". Others held up posters bearing photos of the jailed activists, calling for their freedom.

The La Vie En Rose star later branded the detention of the Greenpeace campaigners "absolutely absurd and crazy".