2 Greenpeace Japan members given suspended terms for whale meat theft

AOMORI, Japan, Sept. 6 Kyodo -
Two members of environmentalist group Greenpeace Japan were each sentenced
Monday to one year in jail, suspended for three years, for stealing a package
of whale meat sent home by a Japanese whaling ship crew member in 2008.
The sentences were handed down by the Aomori District Court in northeastern
Japan against Junichi Sato, a 33-year-old antiwhaling campaign coordinator, and
Toru Suzuki, 43. The two immediately appealed the ruling.
In handing down the ruling, Presiding judge Kenji Ogawa said, ''Even if the
defendants took the action to serve the public interest, it is unacceptable for
a person to infringe upon another person's rights by taking actions that
contravene the Penal Code.''
''Their actions were not legitimate,'' the judge said.
The judge also rejected the men's argument that they only ''took the package
out temporarily'' to file a criminal complaint against the 12 crew members of
the whaling ship, the Nisshin Maru.
The defendants also argued that they had no intention of illegally obtaining
the package of whale meat, which would have warranted a charge of theft.
Greenpeace Japan filed the criminal complaint with Tokyo prosecutors in May
2008, alleging the crew members of the Nisshin Maru embezzled a large amount of
whale meat from their employer Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd. after the vessel
returned from an Antarctic Ocean mission and unloaded tons of cargo at a Tokyo
port in April that year.
Kyodo Senpaku is commissioned to operate the Japanese government's whaling fleet.
Defendant Sato showed whale meat in his hand when the group announced it was
filing the complaint at a news conference, before voluntarily submitting the
23-kilogram package of whale meat as evidence to the prosecutors.
The Aomori District Public Prosecutors Office had demanded 18-month prison
terms for the two men, while their defense sought acquittal.
After their arrest in June 2008, the two men were indicted the following month
on charges of intruding into the Aomori cargo delivery depot of Gifu
Prefecture-based Seino Transportation Co. and stealing the package on April 16
in conspiracy with a British man.
Estimated at 59,000 yen, the package had been sent by a crew member of the
8,044-ton whaling ship to his home in Hakodate, Hokkaido.
While pleading not guilty to the theft charge, the two men acknowledged
entering the delivery depot to intercept and remove the package.
The Aomori prosecutors had argued that the two men should have brought the case
to investigative authorities before taking the whale meat and that their
actions were inappropriate for achieving their aim of getting the crew charged.
On the Greenpeace Japan's argument that the 12 crew members embezzled a large
amount of whale meat, the judge said, ''It is impossible to establish that the
crew members obtained whale meat in an illicit manner.''
But the judge said the 2008 incident ''has led to a review of the handling of
whale meat (by crew members of whaling ships), which had been somewhat murky.''
The company operating the vessel has said it customarily allows crew members to
take limited amounts of whale meat home as souvenirs.
In 2008, the Tokyo prosecutors dismissed the embezzlement complaint against the
crew lodged by the Japanese branch of Greenpeace International.
In February this year, Greenpeace Japan asked a prosecution inquest committee
to examine the prosecutors' decision, but the Tokyo No. 1 Committee for the
Inquest of Prosecution voted to uphold the validity of the decision on April
22.
While commercial whaling is banned under an international pact, Japan claims it
conducts whaling for scientific research purposes. But meat from the whaling is
later sold in markets for consumption.
==Kyodo