Last Thursday (23rd of November) Stavanger City Court found Ole Mindor Myklebust guilty of shooting at two Greenpeace activists during a high seas action in 1999. Luckily neither of the activists, Dave Thoenen and Ulvar Arnkvarn, was hurt during the incident, but a bullet did pierce the pontoon of the inflatable that they had placed between a whaling vessel (the Kato) and a minke whale. The whaler was sentenced to a six months conditional prison sentence and a fine of 20,000 Norwegian kroner and his weapon (a high calibre Winchester rifle) has been confiscated.
"It is reassuring that the court has ruled it unacceptable to shoot at rubber boats, even if they are from Greenpeace," said Frode Pleym, Greenpeace Nordic's whaling campaigner, on hearing the verdict.
