By AFP
December 17, 2024
Copyright AFP Leiff Josefsen
Camille BAS-WOHLERT
Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson was on Tuesday released from detention in Greenland, after Denmark decided to refuse a Japanese extradition request over a 2010 clash with whalers.
Watson has been held since July when his ship docked in Nuuk — the capital of the Danish autonomous territory — on a 2012 Japanese warrant, which accuses him of causing damage to a whaling ship and injuring a whaler.
Greenland police said in a statement that following the Ministry of Justice’s decision in the case of extradition for Paul Watson, the 74-year-old was released at 08:46 am local time (1046 GMT).
“He is free. We’ve just been informed by the Ministry of Justice, he’s not going to be extradited,” Watson’s lawyer Julie Stage told AFP.
Watson, who featured in the reality TV series “Whale Wars”, founded Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF) and is known for radical tactics including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.
According to documents viewed by AFP, Denmark reached its decision while considering the duration of Watson’s detention following his arrest and the time it would take for a possible extradition to be carried out.
The ministry also considered “the fact that the acts for which extradition is sought are more than 14 years ago, and the nature of the acts in general.”
“The decision is based on an overall assessment of the circumstances of the specific case,” the ministry said in a statement.
Contacted by AFP, Japanese foreign ministry officials in charge of the issue were not immediately available for comment.
– Tried to silence –
Watson was arrested on July 21, when his ship was on its way to “intercept” a new Japanese whaling factory vessel in the North Pacific, according to the CPWF.
Tokyo accuses Watson of injuring a Japanese crew member with a stink bomb intended to disrupt the whalers’ activities during a Sea Shepherd clash with the Shonan Maru 2 vessel in 2010.
Watson’s lawyers have said they have video footage proving the crew member was not on deck when the stink bomb was thrown.
“Japan tried to silence a man whose only crime was to denounce the illegality of the industrial massacre disguised as scientific research,” one of his lawyers, Francois Zimeray, told AFP.
Zimeray added that Watson “will now be able to resume his fight for respect for nature.”
Zimeray has previously argued that Watson would not get a fair trial in Japan.
“In Japan, there is a presumption of guilt,” he told AFP, adding: “Prosecutors are proud to announce that they have a 99.6 percent conviction rate.”
In September, Watson’s lawyers contacted the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders, claiming that he could be “subjected to inhumane treatment” in Japanese prisons.
– ‘Not over’ –
Danish Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard, stressed that “this decision does not mean that Denmark shares the concerns that have been raised in certain circles about the Japanese legal system and the protection of human rights in Japan in relation to this specific case.”
“Japan is a democratic state that respects fundamental human rights. There has also been a good and close dialogue with the Japanese authorities,” Hummelgaard said.
In a rare public comment on the case, Japan’s Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya has said that the extradition request was “an issue of law enforcement at sea rather than a whaling issue”.
Jean Tamalet, also a lawyer for Watson, told AFP that “the fight is not over.”
“We will now have to challenge the red notice and the Japanese arrest warrant, to ensure that Captain Paul Watson can once again travel the world in complete peace of mind, and never experience a similar episode again,” Tamalet said.
Watson wants to return to France, where he had been living since July 2023 and where his two young children attend school. He requested French citizenship in October.
Watson’s legal woes have attracted support from the public and activists, including prominent British conservationist Jane Goodall, who has urged French President Emmanuel Macron to grant him political asylum.
Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson freed after Denmark rejects Japan's extradition request
Eloise Goldsmith,
Eloise Goldsmith,
Common Dreams
December 17, 2024 1
Environmental activist Paul Watson looks on after getting released from prison in Nuuk, Greenland, December 17, 2024. Alataq Moeller/Ritzau Scanpix/via REUTERS
The prominent anti-whaling activist Paul Watson was released Tuesday from prison in Greenland after Danish officials rejected a request by Japan to extradite him.
Watson was arrested in Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, in July due to a warrant issued by Japan in 2012, which alleged that Watson had interfered with a Japanese whaling vessel and caused injury to a crew member in 2010, according to The New York Times. He could have faced up to 15 years in jail if convicted.
"I am certainly relieved as this means I get to see my two little boys. That's really been my only concern this entire time. I understand the risks of what we do and sometimes you get arrested—although I am proud of the fact that I have never been convicted of a crime," Watson told the Guardian. Watson's two sons are aged three and eight.
To the outlet AFP, he said: "My arrest has focused international attention on Japan's continuing illegal whaling operations and their intent to go back to the Southern Ocean... So, in fact, these five months have been an extension of the campaign."
Watson, a Canadian American who co-founded Greenpeace and founded Sea Shepherd—a group that uses direct action to protect marine wildlife and oceans—was traveling in July with 25 volunteers on a mission to the North Pacific for the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF), which he started after leaving Sea Shepherd in 2022. When the vessel arrived in Nuuk, Greenland to refuel, Danish police arrested him.
The CPWF denounced the surprise arrest, which came as Watson planned to intercept a new Japanese factory whaling ship.
Watson was also featured in the Animal Planet television show Whale Wars that ran from 2008 until 2015, in which he led efforts to disrupt Japanese whaling on the high seas.
Japan has a long, complicated history with whaling. Whale meat was seen as an important protein for the country after World War II. Japan joined the International Whaling Commission, an international body that placed a moratorium on commercial whaling in the 1980s, in 1951. In 2019, Japan left the body and began catching whales commercially the same year, according to the International Whaling Commission.
In 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled against Japan in a case involving charges that Japan was using a scientific research program as a front for a commercial whaling venture in the Antarctic.
December 17, 2024 1
Environmental activist Paul Watson looks on after getting released from prison in Nuuk, Greenland, December 17, 2024. Alataq Moeller/Ritzau Scanpix/via REUTERS
The prominent anti-whaling activist Paul Watson was released Tuesday from prison in Greenland after Danish officials rejected a request by Japan to extradite him.
Watson was arrested in Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, in July due to a warrant issued by Japan in 2012, which alleged that Watson had interfered with a Japanese whaling vessel and caused injury to a crew member in 2010, according to The New York Times. He could have faced up to 15 years in jail if convicted.
"I am certainly relieved as this means I get to see my two little boys. That's really been my only concern this entire time. I understand the risks of what we do and sometimes you get arrested—although I am proud of the fact that I have never been convicted of a crime," Watson told the Guardian. Watson's two sons are aged three and eight.
To the outlet AFP, he said: "My arrest has focused international attention on Japan's continuing illegal whaling operations and their intent to go back to the Southern Ocean... So, in fact, these five months have been an extension of the campaign."
Watson, a Canadian American who co-founded Greenpeace and founded Sea Shepherd—a group that uses direct action to protect marine wildlife and oceans—was traveling in July with 25 volunteers on a mission to the North Pacific for the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF), which he started after leaving Sea Shepherd in 2022. When the vessel arrived in Nuuk, Greenland to refuel, Danish police arrested him.
The CPWF denounced the surprise arrest, which came as Watson planned to intercept a new Japanese factory whaling ship.
Watson was also featured in the Animal Planet television show Whale Wars that ran from 2008 until 2015, in which he led efforts to disrupt Japanese whaling on the high seas.
Japan has a long, complicated history with whaling. Whale meat was seen as an important protein for the country after World War II. Japan joined the International Whaling Commission, an international body that placed a moratorium on commercial whaling in the 1980s, in 1951. In 2019, Japan left the body and began catching whales commercially the same year, according to the International Whaling Commission.
In 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled against Japan in a case involving charges that Japan was using a scientific research program as a front for a commercial whaling venture in the Antarctic.
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