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Justice for whales, justice for Greenpeace

Press release - 1 July, 2008
July 1, 2008, Moscow. - Russian Greenpeace activists gathered today at the Japanese Embassy demanding release of the two whales defenders, who exposed a major stolen whale meat scandal in the so-called Scientific Whaling Fleet. Peaceful protests against unnecessary and unjust detention of Japanese activists Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki took place all around the world.
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Greenpeace activists conduct a peaceful protest outside the Japanese embassy in Moscow as part of a global campaign against the continued unnecessary detention of two Greenpeace activists in Japan who exposed a large scale embezzlement scandal within the Japanese government-sponsored Southern Ocean whaling program. In addition to demonstrations in approximately 30 countries since last week, nearly 180,000 letters of protest have been emailed to the Japanese Prime Minister and Foreign minister.

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Greenpeace activists conduct a peaceful protest outside the Japanese embassy in Moscow as part of a global campaign against the continued unnecessary detention of two Greenpeace activists in Japan who exposed a large scale embezzlement scandal within the Japanese government-sponsored Southern Ocean whaling program. In addition to demonstrations in approximately 30 countries since last week, nearly 180,000 letters of protest have been emailed to the Japanese Prime Minister and Foreign minister.

zoom

Greenpeace activists conduct a peaceful protest outside the Japanese embassy in Moscow as part of a global campaign against the continued unnecessary detention of two Greenpeace activists in Japan who exposed a large scale embezzlement scandal within the Japanese government-sponsored Southern Ocean whaling program. In addition to demonstrations in approximately 30 countries since last week, nearly 180,000 letters of protest have been emailed to the Japanese Prime Minister and Foreign minister.

zoom

Greenpeace activists conduct a peaceful protest outside the Japanese embassy in Moscow as part of a global campaign against the continued unnecessary detention of two Greenpeace activists in Japan who exposed a large scale embezzlement scandal within the Japanese government-sponsored Southern Ocean whaling program. In addition to demonstrations in approximately 30 countries since last week, nearly 180,000 letters of protest have been emailed to the Japanese Prime Minister and Foreign minister.

zoom

Greenpeace activists conduct a peaceful protest outside the Japanese embassy in Moscow as part of a global campaign against the continued unnecessary detention of two Greenpeace activists in Japan who exposed a large scale embezzlement scandal within the Japanese government-sponsored Southern Ocean whaling program. In addition to demonstrations in approximately 30 countries since last week, nearly 180,000 letters of protest have been emailed to the Japanese Prime Minister and Foreign minister.

zoom

Greenpeace activists conduct a peaceful protest outside the Japanese embassy in Moscow as part of a global campaign against the continued unnecessary detention of two Greenpeace activists in Japan who exposed a large scale embezzlement scandal within the Japanese government-sponsored Southern Ocean whaling program. In addition to demonstrations in approximately 30 countries since last week, nearly 180,000 letters of protest have been emailed to the Japanese Prime Minister and Foreign minister.

It was quite a show that unfolded next to Japanese Embassy in Moscow. Activists installed cages which were meant to represent a prison on sidewalk by the building and locked two action participants into them. One of them was holding a stuffed toy whale, the other - a poster in Japanese with appeal to expose whaling crimes. "Justice for whales, Justice for Greenpeace" - those two posters in Russian and English were put down alongside the "prisoners".

Greenpeace four-month undercover investigation revealed evidence of an embezzlement ring involving crew members on board the Nisshin Maru, who were openly taking the best cuts of whale meat during the so-called scientific hunt, smuggling it ashore disguised as personal luggage and then passing it to traders for illegal sales. Greenpeace activists managed to intercept one of such boxes and on May 8th turned it over to the Public Prosecutor in Tokyo, as evidence of wide-scale corruption at the heart of the whaling operation in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

We requested an investigation into the scandal, and the Public Prosecutor agreed that there was sufficient evidence of wrongdoing.  Instead, Japanese police arrested the Greenpeace activists, who not only turned in all gathered evidence to the authorities but also offered help in the investigation. On June 21 the Tokyo Prosecutor Office announced that it has been unable to find evidence of the embezzlement and that the investigation into crew and whaling officials has been dropped.

"We've uncovered a scandal involving powerful forces in the Japanese government that benefit from whaling, and it's not surprising they are striking back", said Greenpeace Executive Director Jun Hoshikawa.

At the moment Greenpeace activists are still being detained, and in principle can be held for 23 days without charge under Japanese law. At a hearing on June 22 the "Tokyo Two" have been ordered to spend a further 9 days in jail. We appealed that decision but it has been rejected. The next hearing on whether to release them or extend the period of detention will take place on July 1.

"Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki detention can only be described as excessive, unjust and politically motivated. Both activists, along with Greenpeace team in Japan, offered their full cooperation for any investigation, yet they are now being held without charge and without bail", says one of the activists, Dmitry Kuznetsov. "At that, the real law breakers who smuggle whale meat from the so-called scientific programme funded by Japanese taxpayers and sell it for profit, still remain unpunished."

Activists handed to embassy representatives the official appeal to reopen investigation into whaling scandal and release innocent activists and also the "Stolen Japanese Whale Meat Scandal" dossier. In addition, so far more than 179,000 emails of protest from around the world have been sent to the Japanese Government, calling for the immediate release of the activists.

Notes:

In May, a four-month undercover investigation by Greenpeace in Japan

revealed evidence of an embezzlement ring involving crew members of the Nisshin Maru, the fleet's factory ship, onboard which the whales - killed in the name of science - are chopped and boxed for market. It provided evidence that crew were openly taking the best cuts of whale meat and smuggling them ashore disguised as personal luggage and then passing it on to the traders for illegal sale.

Greenpeace obtained one of the boxes, for which the paperwork had been falsified and claimed the contents as "cardboard", whereas in fact it contained 23.5 kgs of prime cut whale meat worth up to US$3,000. In total, 47 suspicious boxes were identified by Greenpeace. The box was presented as evidence to the Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office on May 8.

Informers told Greenpeace that senior crew and officials from Kyodo Senpaku

- the company operating the fleet - and the Institute of Cetacean Research

(ICR) were turning a blind eye to the theft, allowing it to continue for decades.

The "Stolen Japanese Whale Meat Scandal" dossier is available to download in English and Japanese.

The peaceful actions of the crew of the Greenpeace ship, Esperanza, in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary earlier this year stopped the entire whaling operation for more than two weeks. The factory ship, Nisshin Maru, returned to port with half the planned quota of minke whales and no endangered fin whales. The whalers were forced to admit that previous claims that fin whale numbers were increasing was not proved by the expedition - in which so few fin whales were seen, they were unable to catch any.

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