AOMORI, March 9, 2010 - A former whaler has detailed the scale of corruption that he witnessed during his time on board Japanese government whaling ships in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
On the third day of the trial of Greenpeace activists Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, known as the Tokyo Two, who where charged following their exposé of corruption in the whaling programme, the now- retired crewman told the court that he supported commercial whaling but that research whaling been discredited by the embezzlement. He also said that after he had gone to Greenpeace as an informer, the police had tried to get him to change his statement prior to the trial, to deny he had never witnessed or taken part any embezzlement of whale meat. He refused.
The informer, who was a whaler for 40 years, was allowed to give evidence behind a screen to protect his identity from all but the judges and legal representatives, for fear of reprisal over his incriminating testimony. He told the court that he knew souvenir whale meat was sent to Diet Members (Japanese parliamentarians) and officials from the government's Fisheries Agency (FAJ). He added that officials from the Institute for Cetacean Research (ICR) on the factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, also took large portions of highly prized tail meat for themselves claiming it was for research purposes.
He told the court that he witnessed the embezzlement in the 1990's and when he raised his concerns with officials from Kyodo Senpaku, the fleet operator, he was transferred to a different job onboard one of the "non-lethal" research ships. The Programme Director of Greenpeace Japan, Junichi Sato, also took the stand today. During a three hour testimony, he outlined his own background prior to joining Greenpeace and its whale campaign. He told of how he had been approached by a former whaler who detailed the corruption in the whaling programme and how that had prompted the Greenpeace investigation and exposé which was corroborated by today's informer. He further expressed his disappointment that key evidence in support of their defence had not been disclosed in open court and that large sections of witness statements (including the ex-crewmember who gave evidence yesterday – Monday) were censored.
The Greenpeace legal team requested that the recently rendered United Nations Human Rights Council's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention opinion be admitted as evidence. This stated that the Tokyo Two investigation had been legitimate and their subsequent detention was intended to intimidate, but the prosecution objected to its inclusion was upheld. Sato ended the day's proceedings by telling the court that he believed that it was the duty of every Japanese citizen to expose wrongdoing. He will be cross-examined tomorrow and his Greenpeace colleague Toru Suzuki will begin to give his evidence.
Prof. Dirk Voorhoof, an independent expert on Freedom of Expression, will give evidence on March 11. The trial will continue in May. A verdict is expected sometime in June.
In January 2008, Greenpeace began an investigation into insider allegations that organised whale meat embezzlement was being conducted by crew inside Japan's so-called 'scientific‘ whaling programme, which is funded by Japanese taxpayers. The informer was previously involved in the whaling programme, and following his advice Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki began an investigation, eventually discovering firm proof that cardboard boxes containing whale meat were being secretly shipped to the homes of whaling fleet crew - and then sold for personal profit. Junichi delivered a box of this whale meat to the Tokyo Prosecutors' Office in May 2008, and filed a report of embezzlement.
However, the embezzlement investigation was dropped on 20 June – the same day that both men were arrested and then held for 26 days, 23 of which were without charge. They are currently facing up to ten years in prison for "theft" and "trespass".
