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Global protest over arrest of Japanese whale activists

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

Greenpeace | International — Global protest continues to mount with protests and vigils in front of Japanese embassies around the world and more than 180,000 letters being sent to the Japanese government demanding the release of Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki — the Tokyo Two.

A network of Japanese lawyers have called the arrests a violation of human rights and a challenge to the freedom of expression in Japan.

Junichi and Toru have been under arrest since the 20th of June, held without charge. On Tuesday, July 1st, a hearing will be held on whether they will be detained for a further ten days without charge.

Junichi and Toru exposed a whale-meat embezzlement scandal on May 15th by presenting a box of whale meat stolen by crew of Japan’s so-called “scientific whaling” fleet, to the Tokyo Public Prosecutor along with a dossier documenting how they obtained it. The scam, in which prime cuts of whale meat are smuggled off the ship by crewmembers and sold outside official channels, appears to have been running for years with the full awareness of the officials that conduct the whaling expeditions.

The Japanese whaling programme is funded by taxpayers, at a cost of 500 million yen a year (4.7 million)

The Prosecutor’s office took up an investigation, but concluded there was insufficient evidence to pursue charges against any of the crew or whaling officials. The only consequences in the case were for the Greenpeace activists, who intercepted a box of meat as evidence, and were arrested in dramatic raids on their homes and offices, conducted by around 40 police officers in front of television cameras. The police seized documents, computers, cell phones, and the Greenpeace Japan supporter list.

Other voices in Japan are saying that the arrest was a warning to other activist groups that as the G8 approaches, voices of dissent in Japan will not be tolerated.

Kyodo Reported:

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 was 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.”

WATCH, a network of laywers keeping an eye on human rights in Japan in the run up to the G8, issued a statement saying

“The arrest of the two activists is not only a human rights violation with regard to the unjustifiable arrest, detention and investigation, but also a challenge against the freedom of expression. Police repression against the activists’ denunciation obstructs the legitimate activities of both Japanese civil society and international society and is therefore internationally unacceptable and subject to global criticism as an affront to humanity.”

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 1:24 am and is filed under Contributions & Guests . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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