tursiops.org - Bethune slams trial, N.Z. action.

lauricedeephd writes "New Zealand antiwhaling activist Peter Bethune, who recently returned home after being deported from Japan, gave a scathing account of the Japanese legal system Monday and labeled his treatment by the New Zealand government as "disgusting."

"My trial in Japan represents a miscarriage in justice," Bethune said during a news conference in Auckland. "Not because I stood before that court, but because the captain of the Shonan Maru (No. 2) did not."

Bethune was the skipper of the Sea Shepherd vessel the Ady Gil, which sank after the whaling fleet security ship Shonan Maru No. 2 cut off its bow Jan. 6 in the Antarctic Ocean.

"(The Shonan Maru No. 2 captain) rams and sinks my boat and the Japanese Coast Guard failed to even investigate it," he said.

"Collusion between Japanese Coast Guard, Japanese government and the Japanese whaling industry ensured that I felt the full weight of Japanese law is also ensuring that the captain and his crew do not," Bethune said.

"Japan insists on upholding the law, but only when it suits them," he said. "This is especially so when you consider the many international law and treaties (related to whaling) that they continue to break with impunity and on an ongoing basis."

Bethune, who returned to his home in New Zealand on Saturday, also lamented his treatment by the New Zealand government during the case.

The 45-year-old criticized Foreign Minister Murray McCully who, he believes, "immediately sided with the Japanese."

"I remain disgusted with the way Murray McCully has treated us from day one," he said.

"New Zealand has become like a fat little lap dog," Bethune said. "We should be standing up for ourselves, not rolling over."

Prime Minister John Key dismissed Bethune's comments as "ungrateful" and urged him to remember that he got himself into the situation, the New Zealand Press Association reported.

"He had a letter that said 'I do not want to be taken off the boat under any circumstances and I do want to be taken to Japan,' and he was," Key told reporters in Vietnam, where he is visiting.

"We gave him all the support that we possibly could and, in the end, he's had a sentence that has allowed him to return to New Zealand but to somehow lash out and blame our people in Japan. . . . I think it's just ungrateful."

Speaking about his experience in a Japanese prison, Bethune said it was "tough," but he told New Zealand's TV3 television he had "no complaints" about his treatment by Japanese authorities.

Bethune said he had been more worried about the physical aspect of being in prison and the idea of being locked up with murderers, rapists and mafia.

"I think I was more worried about being beaten up and shagged by sumo wrestlers and stuff — there was none of that," he added.

Source: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/"