Greenpeace on Friday urged Japan to give a fair trial to two of its activists who sought to expose embezzlement in the state funded whaling industry but were instead arrested for theft and trespass.
The "Tokyo Two", as the environmental group calls them, were held in custody for 23 days after their arrests in 2008 and now face up to 10 years in prison if convicted in the trial that starts Monday.
Greenpeace says the two, both Japanese nationals, were merely doing their jobs in an environmental investigation when they took a box of whale meat from a mail depot and presented it to state prosecutors as proof of embezzlement.
"They have taken a stand in the public interest," said Kumi Naidoo, the Greenpeace international executive director, on a Tokyo visit to express solidarity with the two and lobby against whaling.
"It has come at a personal and professional cost. To be held in detention for day after day, tied down, with no lawyer is a terrifying thing for anyone to endure," said Naidoo, a one-time anti-Apartheid activist.
"To have that happen to them when all they were trying to do was draw attention to the abuse of public funds is beyond scary. It is wrong."
Japanese whalers kill hundreds of the sea mammals every year in Antarctic waters, where their fleet has repeatedly clashed in recent weeks with militant environmental activists of the Sea Shepherd society.
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.
Greenpeace says its activists, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, had learnt that crew members were given whale meat from the state-run hunts, mailed to them in mislabelled boxes, for personal consumption or sale.
