Japan set to arrest anti-whaling activist: reports

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's Coast Guard obtained an arrest warrant Thursday for an anti-whaling activist who has been held aboard a Japanese harpoon ship since boarding it in the Antarctic last month, press reports said.

Sea Shepherd-issued photo shows New Zealand's Pete Bethune (© AFP/Sea Shepherd/File - Barbara Veiga)

New Zealander Peter Bethune, a member of the militant Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, was the captain of a high-tech powerboat that was sliced in two in a collision with the whaling ship Shonan Maru II in January.

He climbed aboard the Japanese ship on February 15 from a jet ski, intent on making a citizen's arrest of her captain for what he said was the attempted murder of his six crew.

Bethune also presented the Japanese whalers with a three-million-dollar bill for the futuristic carbon-and-kevlar trimaran Ady Gil, which sank in the icy waters a day after the collision on January 6.

Instead, the Japanese whalers took Bethune into custody and sailed for Japan.

The Sea Shepherds, who have called Bethune the first New Zealander taken as a "prisoner of war" to Japan since World War II, said on their website that they were preparing legal representation for the skipper.

The Japan Coast Guard is expected to arrest the New Zealander when the ship arrives in Tokyo on Friday, the Jiji and Kyodo news agencies said, on suspicion of trespass.

A spokeswoman for the coast guard did not confirm or deny the reports.

If convicted, Bethune could face imprisonment of up to three years or a maximum fine of 100,000 yen (1,100 dollars).

Bethune's case is the latest twist in the increasingly heated confrontations between the whalers and the Sea Shepherd activists.

Commercial whaling has been banned worldwide since 1986, but Japan justifies its annual hunts as "lethal scientific research", while not hiding the fact that the meat is later sold in shops and restaurants.

Australian police searched two Sea Shepherd ships at the request of Japanese authorities on Saturday, seizing log books and videos.

Bethune's case is not the first time Sea Shepherd activists have boarded Japanese whaling ships. In January 2008 a Briton and an Australian climbed aboard a Japanese harpoon vessel to deliver a protest letter.

After two days the Japanese side handed them back to an Australian customs boat.