The following is a list of major recent run-ins with the law around the world involving Greenpeace activists:

SPAIN: 16 Greenpeace activists and an independent photojournalist were acquitted on December 16 of public order offences and of causing injuries in a protest at a nuclear power plant. They broke into the Cofrentes plant, run by Spanish energy company Iberdrola, on February 15, 2011, and painted "Nuclear danger" in big black letters on a cooling tower. A court ordered Greenpeace and the activists to pay 20,000 euros ($25,000) in fines and damages for cutting through a fence at the plant.

FRANCE: A French court slapped two-month suspended prison sentences on 55 Greenpeace activists in September who broke into France's oldest nuclear power plant to highlight weaknesses at atomic installations. The activists were all convicted of trespassing and causing wilful damage over the March 18 protest at the Fessenheim power plant near the border with Germany and Switzerland. They included 21 Germans, seven Italians and people from several other nationalities including France, Turkey, Austria, Australia and Israel.

Greenpeace activists have broken into nuclear power plants in France, the world's most nuclear-dependent country, at least 12 times since 2007.

SWEDEN: Nine Greenpeace activists were were ordered to pay fines from 570 euros to 2,850 euros in 2013 for evading security and entering restricted areas of the Ringhals nuclear power plant on the west coast of Sweden. Some simply walked into the plant while others used a ladder to get over a fence. Two activists spent the night at the plant before finally being discovered.

Greenpeace said its "stress test" showed the plants had serious safety deficiencies and urged the government to shut all reactors in the country.

RUSSIA: Russian commandoes seized a Greenpeace ship in September 2013 and detained 30 Greenpeace activists and journalists after a protest at an offshore oil rig owned by Russian state oil giant Gazprom, which environmentalists warn poses a threat to the Arctic environment.

Originally facing a charge of piracy, the so-called "Arctic 30" were later targeted with less severe hooliganism accusations. They were detained for around two months before being bailed and then benefitting from a Kremlin-backed amnesty.

JAPAN: Two Greenpeace activists were given one-year suspended jail sentences in September 2010 for stealing whale meat from a shipping depot in northern Japan in 2008 which they said was going to be consumed illegally. They were found guilty of trespassing and theft.