Greenpeace whale campaign coordinator arrested over whale meat theft

Aomori, Japan, June 21 Kyodo - Japanese police arrested the whale campaign coordinator and another member of conservation group Greenpeace Japan on Friday on suspicion of stealing whale meat, which the group presented to prosecutors as evidence in its allegations
of a whale meat smuggling operation involving a government-sponsored whaling program.

After their arrest in Tokyo on suspicion of theft and unauthorized entry of
private property, coordinator Junichi Sato, 31, and member Toru Suzuki, 41,
admitted to taking a package from the office of a trucking company, but said
they did not steal it but was ''secured as evidence,'' according to
investigators.

According to police, Sato and Suzuki, in collaboration with several other
Greenpeace activists, entered a delivery post of Seino Holdings Co. at its
Aomori branch on April 16 and seized a package of whale meat sent by a
crewmember of the research whaling ship Nisshin Maru on April 16. Greenpeace
Japan said it was among the packages sent to crew members' homes in Hakodate,
Hokkaido Prefecture and other locations.

Greenpeace made an announcement on May 15 that it has filed a complaint with
the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, saying the Nisshin Maru crew,
engaged in a government-sponsored whaling program, may have embezzled prime
whale meat. Whale campaign coordinator Sato made the announcement at a news
conference in Tokyo, showing the seized meat in his hand.

But prosecutors are not going to pursue indictment, according to informed sources.

The following day, after the announcement by Greenpeace made headlines, Seino
filed a report with the Aomori prefectural police, prompting the police to open
an investigation of a possible theft case.

On Friday, just minutes before Greenpeace Japan was to hold a news conference
to update their activities concerning the whale meat case, the Metropolitan
Police Department and Aomori police raided Greenpeace's office in Shinjuku,
Tokyo.

Following the raid, Yasushi Tadano, a lawyer representing Greenpeace, said,
''The arrests of Sato and Suzuki have been unjust because we have been
cooperating with the police investigation and no Greenpeace members are trying
to conceal evidence or planning to run away.''

On May 21, Greenpeace voluntarily presented to Tokyo prosecutors the package of
whale meat it had seized.

Lawyer Tadano stood by Greenpeace's claim that taking the meat from the Seino
delivery post does not constitute theft because the group is not using the meat
for its own benefit. ''But we intend to comply with the decisions of the
authorities,'' he added.

Greenpeace said it has been criticized a lot for seizing the package, but it
also said innocent people were arrested to expose ''the whale meat scandal''
and demanded that they be released.

The move by law enforcement authorities against Greenpeace also drew flak from
critics, saying it may be an attempt by the government to show readiness to
crack down on activists before the Group of Eight summit in early July, which
has increasingly been a target of attacks by anti-globalization activists.

While he disagrees with Greenpeace's anti-whaling stance, journalist Takao
Saito said the way the police arrested the two men and the way they
investigated the group as ''heavy-handed.''

''(Greenpeace) is functioning as a whistleblower in our society so the
authorities should give them a fair hearing to what they have to say.''

Legal experts are divided as to whether the Greenpeace members' actions
constitute theft. But Toyo Atsumi, professor at Kyoto Sangyo University's law
school, said, ''When even investigative authorities require a writ from a court
to conduct searches and seizures, how can a private person do it (without
taking such course of action)? Without a writ, no justifiable act is
constituted.''

Before his arrest, Sato said in an interview with Kyodo News, ''I humbly accept
public criticism about our actions (of seizing the package), but we thought it
necessary to expose the theft by crew members that has been committed over the
years.''

While commercial whaling is banned under an international pact, Japan has been
conducting whaling for ''research'' purposes to investigate their habitats.

Whale meat from the research hunt is marketed for public consumption.
Greenpeace Japan was founded in 1989 as the Japanese branch of the
international environmental group. It has 6,000 supporters, according to its
website.==Kyodo