"TOKYO -- Prosecutors Friday indicted an anti-whaling activist from New Zealand for illegally boarding a Japanese harpoon boat as part of a protest against the ship's whale hunting expedition in Antarctic seas in February.

Peter Bethune had jumped aboard the Shonan Maru 2 during the annual face-off between whalers and their opponents with the stated goal of making a citizen's arrest of the captain, while handing over a $3 million bill for the destruction of a Sea Shepherd protest ship a month earlier.

The 44-year-old was held on board and arrested March 12 immediately after the ship returned to Japan. He has since been in custody in Tokyo."

Tomoko A. Hosaka reports for the Associated Press April 2, 2010. [2]