JAPAN plans to seek an international arrest warrant against anti-whaling Sea Shepherd chief Paul Watson over tense high-seas clashes, broadcaster NHK says.
| Now is the time when we all point and laugh. Chief Watson has earnt it. |
The Japan Coast Guard has obtained an arrest warrant in Tokyo against the Canadian national for allegedly instructing members of his militant environmental group to obstruct Japan's whaling mission, the public broadcaster said today.
Japan will seek his arrest through the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol), NHK said.
The last ship of Japan's Antarctic whaling fleet sailed home this month with the smallest catch in years. Whalers blame the shortfall on high-seas clashes with the environmental group Sea Shepherd.
This season's confrontations in icy Antarctic waters saw the sinking of a Sea Shepherd vessel and the arrest of one of its activists, a New Zealander who faces trial in Japan.
Peter Bethune was indicted on April 2 for trespass, injuring a person, carrying a weapon, vandalism and obstructing commercial activities - charges that could see him jailed for up to 15 years.
Bethune, 45, was the captain of the Sea Shepherd's Ady Gil, a futuristic powerboat that sank after it was sliced in two in a collision with the whaling fleet's security ship Shonan Maru II in early January. |