SAN DIEGO: A radical environmentalist was charged with violating federal law because the government wanted to silence him, his lawyer told a U.S. jury.

Rod Coronado, who has advocated sinking whaling ships and destroying mink farms and animal research labs, was charged after a 2003 speech in which he showed a California audience how to make a Molotov cocktail out of an apple-juice jug.

"He has said things that are offensive, but he believed, perhaps naively, that under the First Amendment he had the right to say those things," Gerald Singleton said in opening statements Tuesday. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of speech.

Coronado, 41, was charged in 2006 with a single count of distributing information on explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction with the intent that his listeners commit illegal acts of violence. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison under sentencing guidelines imposed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The prosecution said Coronado was urging listeners to start fires similar to one set that day at an unfinished condominium project in San Diego, which caused $50 million in damage, making it the costliest eco-terror attack in United States history.

The fire apparently was set by the Earth Liberation Front, an underground organization that has been listed among the FBI's top domestic terrorism targets.

Coronado has represented the Earth Liberation Front as a spokesman, but has not been linked to the San Diego fire. No one was ever charged in the blaze.

Coronado's earlier writings and speeches show that he boasted about teaching people to make firebombs and wanting to "hear the sound of breaking glass caused by Molotov cocktails," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Skerlos told jurors.

"The defendant encouraged others to commit arson to advance the cause," Skerlos said.

The U.S. District judge told jurors the case may last into next week.

Coronado is free on $50,000 (€36,168) bail. He declined to speak with reporters.