LOS ANGELES: Greenpeace is being taken to court by the US government because of its action against the illegal importation of mahogany. Its lawyers says it is the first time an entire organisation has been criminally prosecuted for the activities of two members.

The prosecution arises from the activity in April last year of two Greenpeace members who boarded a vessel off the coast of Miami allegedly carrying mahogany from Brazil to the US and hoisted a banner saying: “President Bush, Stop Illegal Logging.”

They were accompanied by journalists who recorded the event. Both protesters and 12 other Greenpeace activists in support vessels were arrested and jailed over the weekend. Six were charged with misdemeanours, and pleaded guilty.

Normally that would have been an end of the matter, a familiar event for Greenpeace, whose activists are regularly arrested and usually fined or sentenced to short jail terms.

But this time the government has decided to prosecute the organization as a whole. A rarely used law forbidding the unauthorized boarding of vessels, introduced in the 19th century to prevent boarding-house owners leaping on to docking ships to get clients, is being employed.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.