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New Zealand anti-whaling activist Pete Bethune broke down this
afternoon while giving testimony at his assault trial in
Japan.
Bethune, 45, faces five counts of illegally boarding a Japanese
whaling vessel.
Bethune's lawyer, Dan Harris, says Bethune has conceded the facts
of most of the charges but has not conceded guilt. He says assault
is one of the charges he will be defending.
Harris says Bethune was acting in the capacity of enforcer of
international environmental laws under the UN World Charter for
Nature.
That is the crux of a legal opinion Sea Shepherd managed to get accepted into evidence on day one of Bethune's trial.
Luke Nottage from Sydney University Law School has lectured law in Japan and studied this case and he thinks Bethune will be convicted on some charges.
He says Japanese judges have a lot of latitude in sentencing. They like to see remorse but if Bethune shows little it may not hurt him.
"If this was a Japanese accused person showing no remorse trying to run these sorts of argument they would impose a stricter sentence. Because this is someone from abroad they may let it go and be a bit more lenient," says Nottage.
Bethune, a member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, is being tried on charges relating to boarding the Japanese whaling fleet's security vessel Shonan Maru 2 in the Southern Ocean earlier this year.
He boarded the Shonan Maru 2 and presented its captain with a letter seeking $3 million in replacement costs for the trimaran Ady Gil, which he captained before it sank after a collision with the Shonan Maru 2.
After today's court appearance, the case will be adjourned until June 10 for closing arguments.
Prosecutors are understood to be seeking two to three years jail for Bethune, but similar cases have resulted in a suspended sentence for activists who were then deported.
At best Bethune is looking at another month at the Tokyo
detention centre waiting for a decision.
Australia launches challenge
Meanwhile Australia has launched a formal court challenge this
week, alleging Japan's whaling programme breaches three
international treaties protecting whales.
The federal government promised to do this before the last
election, but had recently deferred action until November 2010 at
the earliest.
But recently the pressure has been to take action with Japan's attempt to try to catch and kill 900 whales in the Southern Ocean this year.
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