Greenpeace in Court for Sailor Mongering

MIAMI, Florida, May 17, 2004 (ENS) - The bizarre case involving Greenpeace and alleged violations of an 1872 law enacted to prevent "sailor mongering" begins today in U.S. District Court in Miami.

Judge Adalberto Jordan will oversee jury selection as the government begins its prosecution of Greenpeace under a law last prosecuted more than century ago.

The 19th century law was enacted to prevent unscrupulous boarding house proprietors and prostitutes from boarding ships and luring sailors to their establishments.

The U.S. Justice Department is using the sailor mongering law to prosecute the environmental organization for a 2002 protest of the Bush administration's failure to stop illegal logging.

The indictment centers on an April 2002 protest in which two Greenpeace activists climbed aboard a commercial ship several miles off the coast of Florida.

The activists believed the ship carried a shipment of mahogany illegally exported from Brazil's Amazon rainforest and once aboard they unfurled a banner that said "President Bush, Stop Illegal Logging."

This kind of protest has been a signature of Greenpeace for more than three decades and the activists expected to be arrested and charged.

The six individuals involved in the protest settled charges against them last year, but in an unprecedented move the Justice Department filed criminal charges against the entire organization in July 2003 under the 1872 law.

Last month Jordan agreed with Greenpeace's request for a jury trial and expressed doubts about the Justice Department's ability to prevail against Greenpeace's claim that the criminal statute involved is unfairly vague.

Jordan said the indictment is "a rare - and maybe unprecedented - prosecution of an advocacy group" for free speech related conduct.

Possible penalties under the law are unclear - the law has only been used twice and the last time was in 1890.

But Greenpeace fears it could lose its tax exempt status, a potentially crippling blow to the organization's U.S. activities, and says the use of the "sailor mongering" law reflects a political vendetta by the Bush administration.

The indictment is the first time a nongovernmental organization has been charged for free speech activities of its members and civil rights groups and other public interest organizations are worried about the possible implications.

Greenpeace lawyers will hone in on the illegal activities it was protesting and bringing to public attention.

It is illegal to import mahogany into the United States that has been illegally exported under U.S. law and international accord.

Brazil has had a moratorium on exporting mahogany since October 2001, but the demand in the U.S. market has prompted a flood of illegal exports.

In 2000, the United States received more than 70 percent of Brazil's mahogany exports and the federal government has not had much success stemming the tide.

Greenpeace says this is because the Bush administration has little desire to enforce the law - the organization has evidence the ship its activists boarded in April 2002 offloaded 70 tons of mahogany in South Carolina.

"We look forward to proving at trial that we are not guilty of the charges and that we were doing the right thing to protect the Amazon," said John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA. "The Justice Department's prosecution of Greenpeace is unwarranted and politically motivated."