Convicted Anti-Whaling Activist Deported To New Zealand From Japan

10 July 2010

Peter Bethune, an anti-whaling activist from New Zealand, arrived in his home country on Friday after being deported from Japan, where he was handed down a suspended sentence for obstructing the annual Japanese whale hunt.

Earlier in the day, Japanese immigration officers in Tokyo had escorted Bethune onto an Air New Zealand flight bound for Auckland. Bethune arrived hours later in Auckland, where he said on arrival that he intends to continue with his crusade against whaling. But he was unsure about returning to the Arctic waters in his future campaigns.

On Wednesday, a court in Tokyo had handed down a two-year prison sentence suspended for five years to Bethune, convicting him on charges of assaulting a Japanese whaler and obstructing the country’s whaling fleet.

With the announcement of Wednesday’s verdict, Bethune was expected to be released and deported back to his home country. Ahead of the verdict, he had already spent almost five months in Japanese custody while his case was being heard.

Bethune, a member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, was accused of trespassing, damage to property, assault, forcible obstruction of official business and possession of an illegal knife. He faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted of all the five charges.

Bethune’s trial began at a district court in downtown Tokyo on 27th May, with the detained activist admitting to all but one of the charges pressed against him. Bethune denied the charge of assault, but admitted to the remaining four lesser serious charges, including trespass and obstructing commercial activities.

While testifying at the third and final day of his trial, Bethune denied the charge of assault pressed against him for injuring a sailor on board the Japanese whaling ship by throwing a butyric acid stink bomb.

Bethune said the rancid butter stink bombs he threw at Japanese whaling ships were no more acidic than orange juice, insisting that he would not have thrown the acid bottles at the whaling ships had he known they could cause injury.

Regarding the knife which was found in his possession after his arrest, Bethune said it was a present from his family, adding that he had hidden the knife over fears that it would be a problem if he was found with the knife.

Bethune had jumped on board the Shonan Maru 2 without permission from a jetski in the Southern Ocean on 15th February after the Japanese vessel crashed into Sea Shepherd powerboat Ady Gil, sinking it in the process. The incident took place in the area of Commonwealth Bay off the Adelie Coast of Antarctica.

Bethune was the skipper of Ady Gil, and he is reported to have boarded the Japanese whaling ship in an attempt to make a citizen’s arrest of the Shonan Maru 2 skipper for the collision that sank the Ady Gil. He was formally arrested by Japanese authorities after the whaling ship returned to Tokyo on 12th March.

Though the Sea Shepherd alleged that the Japanese whaling ship “deliberately rammed” the Ady Gil, Japanese authorities dismissed it as an accident and accused the anti-whaling activists of throwing stink bombs at the whaling vessel and attempting to tangle its propellers with ropes.

Anti-whaling groups allege that Japan is using the research program as an excuse to carry out whaling operations for sale and consumption of whale meat. The groups send hundreds of boats with activists to the Antarctic waters each year to hamper whale hunting operations of Japanese whaling fleet.

INO.com – Convicted Anti-Whaling Activist Peter Bethune Deported To New Zealand From Japan