Bethune’s Demands
I should stop giving him publicity, but I couldn’t believe his assertion that he was surprised he ended up in Japan, so I made some inquiries. Below is a copy of the demand letter he gave to the skipper of the Japanese boat.
First of all you have to love the lunacy of a man who makes a demand for arrest on the basis of un-named “maritime experts”.
Could you imagine what would happen if you boarded a plane and demanded the pilot arrest himself, citing un-named aviation experts.
Now his primary demand was that the Japanese boat transport him to Wellington. As the other captain does not suffer from clinical insanity, obviously that was never going to happen. So look closely at what he then said:
I will refuse to be handed over to any Sea Shepherd vessel. I will also refuse to be handed over to any New Zealand or Australian Coastguard, Customs or Naval vessel.
So this so called “prisoner” was in fact refusing to leave the whaling ship. What a farce. Even if the NZ Government had sent a naval vessel to pick him up, Mad Pete proclaimed he would refuse to leave the whaling ship.
He also gave the Japanese an invoice for his boat, demanding they buy him a new one. An extract from that invoice is:
If we have not received payment by April 1, 2010, we will be proceedingwith a civil action in Japan against your company. We will be seeking punitive damages, in addition to the full replacement cost of the Ady Gil.
Now this is exactly what he should have done. As far as I know, he lied, and there has been no civil suit. If there is a dispute about who was at fault, it should be resolved in court.