Whaling activist Bethune will not be jailed

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Wed, 07 Jul 2010 6:00p.m. LATEST

Pete Bethune (NZPA file)

Pete Bethune (NZPA file)

By Melissa Davies in Japan

Anti-whaling activist Pete Bethune is preparing to come home.

Late this afternoon a court in Tokyo gave him a two-year suspended sentence and ordered him out of Japan for obstructing a whaling fleet in the Antarctic Ocean.

He could be home by the weekend.

Sharyn Bethune reacts to news of the sentence

The 45-year-old whaling activist was also found guilty of assault, for throwing a bottle of rancid butter at whalers on board the Shonan Maru II in February.

Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson on news of the verdict

The sentence is suspended for five years, meaning Bethune will not be jailed.

Watch Melissa Davies’ report

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Comments

08 Jul 2010 11:38a.m.

Hayden wrote:

I'm ashamed to call this guy a fellow kiwi. There's the right thing to do, and then there's the stupid thing to do. I am against whaling as much as the next guy, but what he done was not helpful or productive, just plain stupid.

08 Jul 2010 10:35a.m.

Jim wrote:

Paul, also, no one has made a comment on the extermination of sharks (1 every 3 secs - 20 every minute - 1,200 every hour - 28,800 every day - 10,519,200 every year). Interesting reading huh!!!

08 Jul 2010 09:52a.m.

Jim wrote:

Very emotional Paul!!!

08 Jul 2010 04:02a.m.

Paul wrote:

Well Johnny, he's not a bad 'pirate' (as you would call him) he's standing out for something people like you will never understand. You will be amazed to know that because of people like Bethune, your children will one day get a chance to learn how amazing whales and other endangered species are. Please look at yourself in the mirror and judge yourself first before you judge others.

08 Jul 2010 03:20a.m.

STOP WHALING wrote:

They are killing whales, what is more to understand? If they were killing your family what would you do? Would you just stay and watch or would to try to stop it? They are doing this trying to make so another animal is still on the planet and is not just a picture you see in a book. I am all for the Steve Irwin and it attemps to stop these killers.

07 Jul 2010 07:46p.m.

Johnny wrote:

Why wasn't he jailed ? He's a pirate isn't he? If he'd boarded a ship off the cost of Africa he'd been shot.