Japanese authorities arrest Sea Shepherd anti-whaling protester Peter Bethune

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

De Ady Gil (eerder rond de wereld gegaan als ecoboot onder de naam
Earthrace, en toen ook in de Amsterdamse haven geweest) is moedwillig
door de Japanners aangevaren en gezonken.
Peter Bethune is toen verhaal gaan halen ;)

Groet / Cees

Japanese authorities arrest Sea Shepherd anti-whaling protester Peter
Bethune
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/japanese-authorities-arrest-sea-shepherd-anti-whaling-protestor-peter-bethune/
March 12, 2010 2:53PM

*SEA Shepherd activist Peter Bethune was arrested by Japanese
authorities today when the whaling patrol boat returning him in custody
from the Antarctic berthed in Tokyo. *

Bethune, a New Zealand citizen who jumped aboard the patrol boat Shonan
Maru No. 2 on February 15, has been charged with trespass.

After taking him off the vessel, Coast Guard officials began questioning
him about earlier clashes with the Japanese whaling vessel with an eye
to laying further charges.

Bethune, skipper of the Sea Shepherd powerboat Ady Gil, which was run
down and destroyed by Shonan Maru 2 on January 6, faces maximum
penalties of three years’ prison or a Y100,000 fine.

Japanese authorities have arrest warrants out for three other Sea
Shepherd activists over Southern Ocean clashes in February 2007, but
Bethune is the first member of the group to fall into their hands.

Bethune leapt aboard Shonan Maru from a jet ski before dawn on February
15 seeking to make a “citizens arrest” of its master for attempted
murder of the Ady Gil crew and presenting a demand for $US3 compensation
for the advanced carbon fibre-Kevlar powerboat.

Some experts have suggested the payment demand could lay Bethune open to
a piracy charge, an accusation the Japanese have made frequently over
Sea Shepherd’s attempts to sabotage the fleet’s Southern ocean
whale-hunting.

Coast Guard officials are understood to be questioning Bethune over
alleged injuries to crewmen from bottles of weak butyric acid thrown
onto Japanese vessels.

The fleet is now returning home, understood to have killed about 700
minke whales over the summer under the cover of scientific whaling,
allowing Japan to side-step the 26-year-old moratorium on commercial
whaling.

Kevin Rudd has threatened that Australia will take Japan to the
International Court of Justice unless the government agrees before
November to phase-out all Antarctic whaling activities.

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