Anti-whaling protester may face charges in Japan

Tokyo - Police are to interrogate an anti-whaling activist from New Zealand who boarded a Japanese ship in the Antarctic, the Kyodo News Agency said Tuesday, citing unnamed government sources. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society activist Pete Bethune is in custody on the Shonan Maru No 2 whaling ship.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said in Tokyo that authorities were considering whether to bring charges against Bethune under Japanese law for having "allegedly intruded into a vessel of our country."

Japan's coast guard said Bethune was suspected of cutting protective netting on the Shonan Maru so that he could board it.

That would violate the penal code provisions protecting property, buildings or vessels guarded by another person, the coast guard told the Kyodo News Agency.

Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu said he wanted Bethune turned over to the coast guard for investigation.

Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Seiji Maehara told a news conference Tuesday that coast guard investigators would interrogate Bethune if he is brought to Japan.

"Nothing substantial has been decided at this point," Maehara said.

Officials were concerned that indicting him could further escalate the anti-whaling campaign of the US-based conservationist group, Kyodo News Agency said.

Bethune was skipper of the Sea Shepherd's high-speed trimaran Ady Gil, which sank last month after colliding with the Shonan Maru.

Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson said Bethune boarded the boat to make a citizen's arrest of the Japanese skipper for the attempted murder of the Ady Gil's crew, and to deliver a bill for the trimaran.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully met the Japanese ambassador Tuesday morning to discuss the matter, the New Zealand Herald reported.

McCully said he was keen to offer consular support to Bethune and confirmed that he had received an assurance from Japan that he would be able to do so, the report said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/309478,anti-whaling-protestor-may-face-charges-in-japan.html.