Greenlandic courts on Wednesday extended the detention of environmental activist Paul Watson until October 2, pending the Danish government’s decision on an extradition request from Japan in a case related to his fight to defend whales.
Japan has accused Paul Watson, 73, of being jointly responsible for damage and injuries on board a Japanese whaling ship in 2010 as part of a campaign led by his NGO Sea Shepherd, which he denies.
Founder of Sea Shepherd and the ocean foundation that bears his name, Mr. Watson was arrested on July 21 in Nuuk, capital of the autonomous Danish territory, while he was en route with his ship, the John Paul DeJoriato intercept a new Japanese whaling factory ship.
He appeared before a Greenlandic judge in Nuuk on Wednesday, who decided to extend his detention.
“He has been sentenced to an additional 28 days of detention, which is scandalous. We are disappointed, even if we feared this decision,” the president of Sea Shepherd France, Lamya Essemlali, told AFP after the hearing.
The lawyers appealed the decision to the Greenland High Court.
“This is a legal farce and a political scandal,” Watson told online media outlet Vakita as he left the court. “They refuse to look at the evidence, if they did I would be exonerated,” he added, saying Japan was “putting enormous political pressure on Denmark.”
The American-Canadian activist arrived and left the hearing without being handcuffed, unlike the previous hearing in August.
Video vs. Video
Paul Watson was arrested under an extradition request from Japan, which revived its request issued in 2012 via an Interpol red notice.
He is accused of having injured a Japanese sailor in the face by throwing a stink bomb – butyric acid – to hinder the work of the whalers.
But Mr Watson’s counsel said the video footage proved that the crew member who Japanese authorities say was injured was not even present when the stink bomb was thrown on board.
“The judge agreed to view the Japanese footage, but refused to view ours,” Essemlali said. “But with their footage, you can’t see where the shot landed, unlike ours.”
One of Mr Watson’s lawyers, Jonas Christoffersen, said he would ask the Greenland High Court to view the footage.
“This five-second video shows that there is no sailor on deck where the Japanese claim there was one,” Christoffersen told AFP.
It will be up to the Danish Ministry of Justice to decide whether or not to extradite Paul Watson. It told AFP on Tuesday that the examination of the official extradition request was “ongoing”, without giving a timetable for its decision.
“This is a procedure with several legal steps, and the Ministry of Justice is currently awaiting the legal assessment of the Greenlandic police and the Director of Public Prosecutions,” he told AFP.
Greenlandic police questioned Mr Watson on Tuesday, said Sea Shepherd France president Lamya Essemlali.
“Very unfair”
A controversial figure in environmental circles, particularly because of his strong-arm tactics, the activist has obtained the signatures of 100,000 people on the petition demanding his release. On the political level, Paris has asked Copenhagen not to extradite him.
From his cell in Nuuk Prison, a modern grey building set into the side of a rock, Paul Watson displays his determination to continue his fight.
“If they think that this will stop our opposition! I only changed ships, and my current ship is ‘Prison Nuuk’,” he said in an interview with AFP at the end of August. The Japanese “want to use me as an example to show that their whaling is not to be touched.”
A loyal supporter of the activist, Lamya Essemlali sees this detention as an opportunity to shine the spotlight on Japanese intransigence.
Paul Watson and his foundation have two boats ready to intervene if any of the whaling powers resume whaling. Along with Japan, Norway and Iceland are the only countries that allow the practice.
In Japan, a former harpooner, Shintaro Takeda, said in an interview with AFP that only luck had prevented deaths during the violent clashes, some fifteen years ago, between Japanese whalers and Sea Shepherd activists.