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'Whale Wars' update: Bethune gets two-year suspended prison sentence

By April MacIntyre Jul 7, 2010, 6:48 GMT

Japan may now arrest and charge Captain Pete Bethune, in the latest of a number of confrontations between the whalers and the Sea Shepherd activists who have harassed them for weeks in international waters media reports stated on 16 February 2010. EPA/TONY MCDONOUGH

Animal Planet stars of "Whale Wars", Captain Paul Watson, Bob Barker and all the Sea Shepherd crew must be relieved that their peer, Peter Bethune, was given a two-year suspended prison sentence and five years' probation Wednesday by a Tokyo district court judge for boarding a Japanese whaling ship.

Held for months, Bethune was found guilty on five charges, ranging from assault against whalers to trespassing into a whaling vessel. Bethune had previously pleaded guilty to all charges but assault.

Worst case scenario, New Zealand activist Bethune was facing 15 years behind bars on charges.

CNN reports that Bethune gave testimony in May 2010 that his intentions were not meant to hurt anyone with the butyric acid he hurled at the Japanese whaler.

The events happened in January, 2010, as the Ady Gil collided with the Shonan Maru 2.

The crash sunk the Ady Gil, which Bethune was captain.  Bethune jumped aboard the Shonan Maru 2 weeks later, according to CNN, and made an attempt at a citizen's arrest of the captain.

Bethune was arrested and brought to Japan to stand trial.

This marked the first Sea Shepherd activist to be tried in a Japanese criminal court.

The Sea Shepherd has long been critical of Japan, as the country hunts and serves whale meat as food.