Kinda weird actually considering they were operating on their own government's orders.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Rainbow_Warrior
Can you imagine, the government telling you to do something and then dragging you in front of a court after you do it :S I don't think they should have gone through with it but as they were under orders I don't think the responsibility lies with them.
By the way I really miss the way Greenpeace is no longer a grassroots environmental organisation. Protesting against nuclear testing, whaling etc the way they did was risky but effective.
Nowadays they're just another multinational corporation, just with some environmental goals. It's no wonder they're never really in the news anymore. And the need for this activism is actually much greater than ever now.
The French agents were arrested by New Zealand, not France, and convicted in New Zealand. France also threw their weight around to avoid having their agents jailed for the term of their sentences, AFAIK.
Beyond that, there's nothing wrong with holding responsible agents of the state who follow illegal orders (whether this was by French law, I can't speak to it). Many liberalized states, and particularly the militaries of those states, operate on the assumption that you must refuse to follow an illegal order. (Intelligence services, which caused the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, may have different rules, but fundamentally there's supposed to be a carve-out and an escalation process for addressing orders "beyond the rules"." An example from the United States: https://warontherocks.com/2017/07/when-can-a-soldier-disobey...
I totally agree they should have refused the orders. But the people who gave the orders are more accountable in my opinion.
I have seen this commented a lot by people, that specifically anti-terrorist laws were used? But from what I have found, they used regular laws. Any chance you can point me in the right direction?
https://www.liberation.fr/france/2015/11/27/l-etat-d-urgence...
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/04/03/french-police-t...
If I were an environmental activist, I would definitely step up my operational security.