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Namibian officials grill photographer over seal cull
Windhoek (AFP) Aug 5, 2009 A South African photographer accused of documenting Namibia's annual seal cull was held Tuesday for nearly seven hours without charge, less than a month after the arrest of two journalists. The detention took place in Henties Bay, a small town 400 kilometres (250 miles) west of the capital, where two journalists were arrested and fined last month for filming the yearly clubbing of seal pups. Neil Hartmann said he was confronted by four men while taking photographs of a seal product factory for South African group Seal Alert, an organisation which plans to buy out the plant in order to shut down Namibian sealing, branded cruel by animal rights groups. "Only one of the men identified himself by just saying he was the factory owner and they called a police officer, who bade me to the police station where I was intensively searched and I had to show all my photos," Hartmann told AFP. "The men and the police insisted that I had filmed the annual seal culling, but I proved to them that this was not the case," added Hartmann. "No charge was laid but after more than three hours I was taken to the offices of the fisheries ministry where I was again interrogated and had to show my photos." Hartmann said he was released after nearly seven hours. British investigative journalist Jim Wilckens and South African cameraman Bart Smithers were fined last month by a Namibian court for trespassing in order to film the annual seal hunt. Both were released after paying a fine of 5,000 Namibian dollars (633 US dollars, 439 euros) each. The annual commercial seal harvesting season officially began on July 1 with a quota of 85,000 pups due to be clubbed to death and 6,000 bulls to be shot on the country's coast. Namibia's seal population numbers roughly 900,000. Seal Alert South Africa was part of a group of animal activists who last month launched a campaign to raise 14.2 million US dollars buy out an Australia-based fur buyer and the sealing rights of the two local businessmen. However, Francois Hugo of Seal Alert said the deal has not materialised due to lack of funds, even though the start of culling was delayed to July 15 in anticipation of a deal. In May this year, the European Union banned imports and exports of all seal products in their 27 member states, including transit through the EU to other markets. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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