Dolphin activist cleared in Japan

[Davey]

A Sea Shepherd dolphin activist, held for two months in jail in the town of Taiji over an alleged minor assault, has been cleared of the charge in a very rare finding by a Japanese court.

Erwin Vermeulen, a volunteer with the Cove Guardians group of Sea Shepherd protesting against the Taiji dolphin hunt, was arrested after he was said to have shoved an employee of the Dolphin Resort Hotel.

He was detained until last week, and a "not guilty" decision in his case was handed down today, Sea Shepherd leader, Paul Watson, said.
"The Japanese judge said there was no evidence to support the claim.

Read more: Dolphin activist cleared in Japan

Would he get a compensation for being in Jail two months? How does this work in Japan?

 

[Mike Cash]

That article leaves more questions unanswered than answered. I had to hunt up a Japanese article on it.

The judge said the victim's testimony was contradictory and lacked credibility. I don't know if was actually locked up all that time, but from what I know of the Japanese criminal justice system (usually no pretrial release without a signed confession, guaranteeing a conviction), I would have to say the chances are high that he was locked up the whole time.

Compensation? Not from the government. Given what the judge said about the other guy's testimony he might try a civil suit against him for compensation. I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[Davey]

Thanks for searching up the Japanese article Mike!

You sometimes read those news articles about people being innocent in jail for years and they get compensations, which they should IMO, that are quite high...

I'm pretty sure that we might see some more of him on the internet in the upcoming days, and maybe read his story (although you never know what the truth is).

 

[Astroboy]

On February 21, Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mr Maxime Verhagen met with Japan's MAFF Minister Mr Kanou.
In the meeting, Mr Verhagen told Mr Kanou that Duth government submitted a legislation to the parliament to take up Dutch ship registry if the Dutch flag ship harm/damage ships of other country's flag.
ﾆ棚ﾆ停?ｰﾆ停?愴胆窶堋ｪ窶敖ｽ窶｢ﾃ淒蓄窶冂窶佚娯?堙固ｽﾃｦ窶凖ｷ窶邸ﾋ?? NHKﾆ男ﾆ停?ｦﾂーﾆ湛

In short, Dutch government is going to ban Seashepard's ship registry at Holland.

I think Japanese court system will not be diplomatically influenced, but I assume that Dutch government must have worked hard against Japanese government to release the Dutch activist. So, I am interested in the timing of judgement.

As for other questions, I think Mike Cash is right.