Greenpeace Japan whale campaign coordinator Junichi Sato, with the whale meat that was stolen from Japanese taxpayers, and which he provided as evidence to the government -- only to be arrested and charged for doing so.
The two activists were arrested on June 20th, more than a month
after a Greenpeace investigation confirmed information from former
whaling fleet employees that crew were smuggling whale meat from
the factory ship Nisshin Maru to their homes to sell for personal
profit (1).
"From the beginning it has been clear that the arrest and
detention and now the charging of the two activists has been
politically motivated, and that powerful forces within the Japanese
establishment are attempting to silence legitimate peaceful
protest, in order to protect the so-called scientific whaling
programme," said Gerd Leipold, Greenpeace International Executive
Director. "It was more than simply a domestic police investigation
into the alleged theft of the box; Junichi and Toru would not have
been detained had they intercepted any other type of contraband and
handed it to the authorities for investigation."
"We have exposed a scandal at the heart of the whaling
programme, involving embezzlement of valuable cuts of whale meat,
and we have highlighted the massive waste of Japanese taxpayers'
money on the annual so-called scientific hunt in the Southern Ocean
Whale Sanctuary," he continued. "Instead of prosecuting peaceful
protesters and those who exposed crimes within the whaling
programme, the government of Japan should revoke all Southern Ocean
whaling permits, release the activists and order an immediate and
independent investigation into the embezzlement scandal."
After Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki were arrested, they were held
for three weeks without charge, despite having already offering to
cooperate with any police investigation and having already
submitted, under their own initiative, written statements about the
undercover investigation, which revealed large-scale theft of meat
from the tax-payer funded so-called scientific whaling
programme.
Almost a quarter a million people have sent letters to the
Japanese Government calling for the release of Junichi and Toru and
to demand a full investigation into the whale meat embezzlement
scandal. Protests have been held outside Japanese embassies in 35
cities across 30 countries. Nearly 30 environmental and human
rights organizations have either put their names to an NGO
statement of protest, or sent letters of support including Amnesty
International, the Lawyers Network for Human Rights Observation,
International Fund for Animal Welfare, InArticle 19, Transparency
International, Oceana, Ubuntu, and Oxfam.
Other contacts: Dave Walsh, Greenpeace International, in Tokyo: +81 80 5877 2587 Kyoko Murakami: Greenpeace Japan Media, in Tokyo: + 81 80 5088 3048Cindy Baxter, Greenpeace International in Amsterdam +31 646 197 332
Notes: (1) Earlier this year, working from information given by former and current employees of whaling fleet owner Kyodo Senpaku, Greenpeace tracked the offloading of smuggled whale meat from the factory ship Nisshin Maru to crew members' homes. One of four boxes destined for the same private address was intercepted in order to verify the contents and establish the fraud. This box, containing up to US$3000 worth of prime meat, but labeled as containing "cardboard", was displayed at a press conference on May 15th, before being turned over to the public prosecutor. The public prosecutor suddenly dropped the investigation of the meat scandal the same day that Sato and Suzuki were arrested.The "Stolen Japanese Whale Meat Scandal" dossier is available to download at:http://www.greenpeace.org/whale-meat-scandalGreenpeace has carried out a series of activities at Japanese embassies around the world protesting the detention of Junichi and Toru.http://www.greenpeace.org/tokyo-twoGlobal protest over arrest of Japanese whale activists: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/free-the-tokyo-two-300608The Statement of Concern and a list of environmental and human rights organizations who have signed it can be seen here:http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/tokyo-two-statement-of-concer