Accused By Sea Shepherd Of Intentionally Ramming Ships
Sea Shepherd wants Dutch authorities to prosecute Japanese whalers for piracy for allegedly attacking the radical conservationist group’s ships in Antarctic waters, a lawyer said Thursday.
Lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld filed a criminal complaint with Dutch environmental prosecutors accusing the crew of the Nisshin Maru whaling ship of deliberately ramming Sea Shepherd’s ships in February.
The case is being brought in the Netherlands because the Sea Shepherd ships Steve Irwin and Bob Barker both sail under the Dutch flag.
It intensifies a legal battle going on between Sea Shepherd and Japan’s whaling fleet stemming from their repeated clashes on the high seas in recent years.
Japan says it hunts whales for scientific purposes, an allowed exception to an international whaling ban, though anti-whaling activists say the hunts are a cover for commercial whaling.
Zegveld accused the Nisshin Maru’s captain Tomoyuki Ogawa and his crew of crimes including “sea robbery” a little-used offense formerly used to prosecute pirates. The charge has recently been dusted off in the Netherlands to prosecute Somali pirates captured by the Dutch navy.
“The Nisshin Maru is guilty of piracy, violence against the crew of a sea vessel endangering safe navigation and the destruction of Sea Shepherd vessels; all three punishable offences under the Dutch Criminal Code,” Zegveld said in a statement.
After one of the incidents Zegveld referred to in her complaint, on Feb. 20, Japan’s Fisheries Agency insisted the protesters were responsible for the collisions as they tried to hinder a refueling operation.
Zegveld’s complaint accused the whalers of deliberately ramming the Sea Shepherd vessels during refueling operations in the Southern Ocean on Feb. 20 and 25.
Source: Huffington Post
