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Russian authorities have charged all 30 people aboard a Greenpeace ship with piracy after two activists tried to scale an oil platform in a protest of Arctic drilling last month, the Russian Investigative Committee said Thursday, according to CNN. 

The charging began Wednesday and finished Thursday. If convicted, the 28 activists and two freelance journalists could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

None of the 30, who hail from at least 18 countries, pleaded guilty, the committee said.

The defendants include Americans Peter Wilcox, who is the captain of the Arctic Sunrise, and Dmitry Litvinov, who Greenpeace says also holds Swedish citizenship.

They were arrested after two of the activists left the Arctic Sunrise and tried to climb the side of an oil platform owned by the Russian energy giant Gazprom in the Barents Sea on September 18.

The Russian coast guard detained the pair and the rest of the Arctic Sunrise's crew, and towed the ship to the northwestern Russian port city of Murmansk.

Greenpeace said the two activists were trying to hang a banner from the side of the rig in what the group called a peaceful protest against the "slow but unrelenting destruction of the Arctic."

But Russian authorities accuse them of trying to commandeer the platform. The authorities and Gazprom also say the activists endangered the lives of the company's employees and that their action could have led to an environmental disaster.

Lawyers acting on Greenpeace's behalf have filed appeals in court seeking the defendants' release, Greenpeace said Thursday.