MARK COLVIN: The former Sea Shepherd activist Peter Bethune may soon be a free man in his home country of New Zealand after the verdict in a Japanese court today.
He was convicted of trespass and other offences but the judge gave him a suspended sentence.
He's likely to be deported soon.
Our Tokyo correspondent Mark Willacy was in the courtroom for the verdict and sentencing.
MARK WILLACY: The worst that the defence feared was that the prosecution's wishes would be delivered and that Peter Bethune would cop a two year sentence.
That’s what the prosecutors wanted. They said that he was facing serious charges. The charges included carrying a knife, trespassing on a boat, vandalism, obstructing business but the most serious charge he was facing was assaulting a crew member – namely, throwing one of these rancid butter bombs on board a whaling ship which burst open and splashed a whaler in the face.
And the whaler said and he testified in court that he suffered chemical splash burns to his face which took a week to heal. And it's something the judge accepted and said that was an extremely dangerous and reckless thing to do.
MARK COLVIN: So how come he didn't get two years jail?
MARK WILLACY: Well the judge is basically saying that he showed that he was ready to plead guilty to four of the charges. Peter Bethune did not plead guilty to the assault charge. The judge said that Peter Bethune, he acted recklessly. He should have known what he was doing in the Southern Ocean.
But it has to be said that Peter Bethune has been in Japanese custody now for five months. He was brought to Japan on board the whaling vessel that he jumped on board of and that he'd shown some remorse in the court, although some people said that that was all an act.
So he was given a two year sentence, which was quite serious, but then the judge said it's suspended for five years. So he may have got out of jail, literally.
MARK COLVIN: And out of the country? I mean does he have to wait for that five years before he knows whether that sentence is unsuspended again?
MARK WILLACY: No we understand that what will happen is that as soon as the court case is concluded, which will be today, he will be taken to an immigration centre and moves will be made to deport him back to his home country which is New Zealand.
So that was what his defence team wanted. They wanted a suspended sentence so that Peter Bethune could return home to see his family as soon as possible and he's got his wish.
MARK COLVIN: On the other hand he's definitely not going to be able to commit any actions against the whaling fleet for a while unless he wants to go back to jail.
MARK WILLACY: Well he said in the court earlier, a couple of weeks ago, that he would not return to the Southern ocean, that he would not be involved in any more protests and in fact the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to which he belonged has said that he have fired Peter Bethune, or they've distanced themselves from him, because he was carrying a bow and arrow on his vessel and that breached their guidelines.
So it would seem that maybe Peter Bethune wants to play it quiet for a while.
MARK COLVIN: Now what about outside the court?
MARK WILLACY: Well outside the court there was a lot more action than inside the court.
When we arrived there was a group of ultra-nationalist protesters setting up their loudspeakers and they began broadcasting almost immediately, making a very loud racket. And they were very angry to see the foreign media.
In fact, they pointed out the ABC and one of the protest leaders said over the loudspeaker "Here is the ABC, the biased broadcaster from Australia". So maybe they've been watching or listening to our coverage, who knows. But they certainly didn't like the fact that the foreign media was covering the event.
And over the road from that there was about three supporters of Peter Bethune who basically chained themselves to a flag pole so that they could launch their own mini-protest. They were taken away by the police and let go.
But there were clashes on the streets. These ultra-nationalist protesters confronted a group of Japanese journalists and there was quite a nasty little scuffle and the police were involved and had to basically pull both sides apart. So there was certainly some action outside the Tokyo District Court today.
MARK COLVIN: Mark Willacy.
The full story...
Suspended sentence for activist who boarded Japanese whaling ship
Mark Willacy reported this story on Wednesday, July 7, 2010 18:22:00
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