(Copenhagen) Japan has asked Denmark to extradite Paul Watson, a well-known American-Canadian environmental activist opposed to whaling who was arrested in Greenland on July 21 and is the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by Japanese authorities.
“The Justice Department received yesterday (Wednesday) from the Japanese authorities a formal extradition request concerning Paul Watson,” he said in a message to AFP.
Known for his violent raids on trawlers, Paul Watson, 73, was arrested on his ship, which had just docked in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, on July 21, to refuel in preparation for “intercepting” Japan’s new whaling factory ship in the North Pacific, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF) said in a statement.
He was remanded in custody until August 15, when the Greenland High Court will decide whether to extend his detention following an appeal by the activist and his lawyers.
In parallel, when the Danish Ministry of Justice receives the official documents from the Japanese authorities, the case will be handed over to the police in Greenland, a Danish autonomous territory, who will begin investigations to determine whether there are grounds for extradition under Greenlandic law.
If so, the case will be submitted to the Ministry of Justice for a final decision. It is also possible for the Danish Ministry to reject this extradition request ex officio, i.e. before passing the case on to the Greenlandic police.
International mobilization
The arrest of the “captain” has sparked many reactions and given rise to a mobilization demanding his release.
“Paul is doing well, his spirits are up. He has no regrets,” the president of the French branch of the NGO Sea Shepherd reported on Tuesday after visiting Mr. Watson the day before.
The office of French President Emmanuel Macron has also asked Danish authorities not to extradite Mr Watson, who had been living in France for a year before his arrest.
A French online petition urging Mr Macron to demand the release of Paul Watson has gathered nearly 670,000 signatures in eight days.
Sea Shepherd France has launched a separate online petition to Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, urging her not to extradite the environmental activist. It had more than 26,000 signatures as of Thursday, and comes in addition to an open letter sent by 68 French and European parliamentarians on July 24 making the same demands.
“He won’t leave alive”
“You are the only one, Madam Minister, who can prevent his extradition to Japan, where he faces a 15-year prison sentence. In fact, life imprisonment, because if Paul Watson is extradited to Japan, he will not leave alive,” Sea Shepherd France writes on its website. “Paul Watson has dedicated his entire life to defending the ocean and whales in particular.”
Renowned primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall also called for his release, saying he was “simply trying to prevent the inhumane practice of killing whales, which most countries have banned for decades.”
The “Japanese government” […] “has triggered a global manhunt” against Paul Watson, said former French actress Brigitte Bardot.
The “sheriff of the seas”, founder of Sea Shepherd created in 1977 after a break with Greenpeace, is wanted by the Japanese authorities for having caused damage and injuries during two incidents which occurred in the Antarctic Ocean in 2010 against a Japanese whaling ship.
Japan is, along with Norway and Iceland, one of the last three countries in the world that still practice commercial whaling.