Japan plans to seek an international arrest warrant against the leader of the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd over tense high-seas clashes, the nation's public broadcaster said Friday.
The Japan Coast Guard has obtained an arrest warrant in Tokyo against 59-year-old Canadian Paul Watson for allegedly instructing members of his group to obstruct Japan's whaling mission and causing injury to Japanese crew, NHK said.
Japan will seek his arrest through the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), NHK said.
No immediate confirmation of the report was available from the coast guard.
The last ship of Japan's Antarctic whaling fleet sailed home this month with the smallest catch in years. Whalers blame the shortfall on high-seas clashes with the militant environmental group Sea Shepherd.
This season's confrontations in icy Antarctic waters saw the sinking of a Sea Shepherd vessel and the arrest of one of its activists, a New Zealander who faces trial in Japan.
Peter Bethune was indicted on April 2 for trespass, injuring a person, carrying a weapon, vandalism and obstructing commercial activities -- charges that could see him jailed for up to 15 years.
Bethune, 45, was the captain of the Sea Shepherd's Ady Gil, a futuristic powerboat that sank after it was sliced in two in a collision with the whaling fleet's security ship Shonan Maru II in early January.
Copyright 2010 AFP Asian Edition
