Charges dismissed in ship boarding by Greenpeace

May 20, 2004|Associated Press

MIAMI -- A judge threw out federal charges yesterday against Greenpeace for a protest in which members of the environmental group clambered aboard a cargo ship loaded with Amazon mahogany.

Greenpeace was charged under an 1872 law, not used in more than a century, that was intended to keep bordellos from sending prostitutes to board ships, attempting to lure sailors ashore.

US District Judge Adalberto Jordan ruled there was not enough evidence for the case to go to the jury. He put an end to the case after the prosecution rested.

Greenpeace argued that the charges were payback for its criticism of what the group said is the Bush administration's lax enforcement of international restrictions on mahogany trade.

In 2002, six Greenpeace activists spent the weekend in jail after two of them boarded the cargo ship APL Jade six miles from its dock in the Port of Miami to protest a 70-ton load of Brazilian mahogany. The group was indicted 15 months later under a law unused since 1890.