US Prosecutes Greenpeace Under 1872 Law

Greenpeace will appear in court in Miami on Monday in what is believed to be the first criminal prosecution in the United States of a campaign group for the activities of its members.

The case has been attacked by the former vice-president Al Gore and many civil rights groups, who claim it is being used by the attorney general, John Ashcroft, to stifle dissent.

It arises out of a Greenpeace action off the Florida coast in April 2002. Two members boarded a vessel believed to be illegally carrying mahogany from Brazil to the US and hoisted a banner saying, "President Bush, Stop Illegal Logging". Hilary Hoster and Scott Paul were arrested and held briefly. They pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and received a sentence of time served. Normally, that would have been the end of the matter. Greenpeace is accustomed to its members being briefly jailed or fined over their activities.

However, after a 15 month delay, the government announced it was prosecuting the organization under an obscure 1872 law that forbids "sailor-mongering" or boarding ships to talk to the crew. It was introduced to prevent staff from brothels and bars in ports luring sailors to their premises and interfering with the smooth running of a ship.

"It took them 15 months to come up with this law," Sara Holden, of Greenpeace, said yesterday. "We feel that the case is important not just for Greenpeace USA but for any action group. If they succeed here, who's next?"

The executive director of the organization in the US, John Passacantando, will represent it in the dock. If convicted, it faces fines up to $10,000 (£5,700) and probation, with additional fines imposed each time a breach is deemed to have occurred.

Activists fear that such a sentence would curtail future campaigns.

Greenpeace has succeeded in having the trial heard by a jury. "We want the opportunity to tell as many people as we can why we felt the need to take the action we did," Ms Holden said.

Mr Passacantando said the case had huge significance for the protest movement in America. "The unprecedented nature of this prosecution has the potential to transform an important aspect of our nation's legal and political life, significantly affecting our tradition of civil protest," he said.

"The conduct for which the Ashcroft justice department seeks to prosecute Greenpeace was, essentially, whistle-blowing: publicly exposing and preventing violations of US law prohibiting the importation of illegally harvest mahogany wood."

Mr Gore criticized the prosecution in a speech to the organization move on.org a few months ago. He said: "The Bush justice department has recently begun a highly disturbing criminal prosecution of the environmental group Greenpeace because of a non-violent protest against what Greenpeace claimed was the illegal importation of endangered mahogany from the Amazon."

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union have also condemned the case.

An activist who took part in the 2002 action, Jeremy Pastor, said: "The Amazon rain forest is a treasure that should be preserved and respected by all people. That is why the Brazilian government has made the logging of mahogany illegal. The Bush administration should be at the forefront of this preservation and not be an accomplice to criminal acts that will ruin the rain forest for generations."

Greenpeace also clashed with George Bush's administration in 2001 when activists briefly delayed the "Star Wars" tests at Vandenberg air base in California. Seventeen people were arrested, jailed and charged with misdemeanors.