How France is mobilizing for the release of the environmental activist

For France, Captain Paul Watson must be saved. The environmental activist is in Japan’s sights for his fight against whaling, still practiced by Japanese sailors. The founder of the NGO Sea Shepherd was arrested on July 21 in Greenland, on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by Japan in 2012 for “boarding conspiracy”. Tokyo accuses him of preventing the activity of its whalers in Antarctica.

Paul Watson was apprehended while refueling in Greenland, en route to the North Pacific to intercept Japan’s new factory whaling ship Kangei Maru. Since his arrest, the activist has been behind bars while waiting for the Danish courts to rule on the request for his extradition to Japan, where he risks fifteen years in prison. The court in Nuuk (Greenland) is due to rule on Wednesday, September 4, on whether he should remain in pre-trial detention.

Paul Watson, 73, is originally from Canada but has been living in France since 2015. “At the time, the French authorities had agreed not to execute the Japanese arrest warrant.”emphasizes lawyer William Bourbon to The life. “Besides the fact that Paul had ties to France, there would have been something totally indecent and absolutely absurd under the presidency of François Hollande to arrest this great activist environmentalist.”

The former socialist president then pleaded for the“exemplarity” of France on environmental protection, as in a speech given on November 27, 2014. Three years before being appointed Minister of Ecological Transition by Emmanuel Macron, Nicolas Hulot had also pleaded the cause of Paul Watson to François Hollande, recalls The World.

In his host country, his supporters have set about securing his release. Among them, the French government, in conjunction with the Kingdom of Denmark, of which Greenland is a part. “Exchanges continue with the Danish authorities at the diplomatic level, between embassies, the ministries concerned…” the presidency of the Republic announced.

“The situation is being followed very closely, with the aim that he not be extradited.”

The resigning Secretary of State for the Sea, Hervé Berville, is one of the members of the executive who intervened. “He contacted his counterpart in Denmark”assured the president of Sea Shepherd France, Lamya Essemlali, to France 3. On the occasion of the support demonstration planned for Wednesday, September 4 in Paris, Hervé Berville will speak “to underline France’s diplomatic commitment to this issue”the NGO also announced in a press release.

“I appreciate the support of the French President and government”Paul Watson also praised in an interview recorded on the telephone by Lamya Essemlali broadcast by France Inter.

“This shows me that the French government and the president [Emmanuel] Macron is concerned about protecting whales.”

Paul Watson, founder of the NGO Sea Shepherd

to France Inter

But activists are pushing for more action from the executive. Journalist Hugo Clément, for example, has launched a petition “to prevent Japan from silencing the leading whale advocate forever”He asked the French head of state “to contact Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to demand the immediate release of Paul Watson”The text has already received more than 765,000 signatures, including those of personalities such as actress Brigitte Bardot and presenters Stéphane Bern and Nagui.

The president of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation also hopes to influence the Danish government to secure the release of the man she considers her friend. “It is a scandal, a shame, a cowardice that does not honor your country!” she wrote in an open letter to the head of the Danish government, published on the website of the animal rights association. “Madam Prime Minister, you cannot choose the side of the gravediggers of the oceans, be an accomplice of poachers, and free yourself from European regulations that protect cetaceans!” she insists.

Like Brigitte Bardot, 70 MEPs, including Frenchwoman Emma Fourreau (La France Insoumise), pleaded the cause of Paul Watson in another letter addressed to Mette Frederiksen. The head of the Danish government referred them to the Ministry of Justice. “The answer is neither satisfactory nor reassuring”reacted the rebellious elected official on Facebook. “Worse than that, She is passing the buck to her Minister of Justice, as if a Prime Minister were not responsible and liable for the decisions of her entire government.”

To obtain the release of its founder, the NGO Sea Shepherd France is also counting on mobilization. The association has thus launched the #FreePaulWatson operation, intended to gather as much support as possible. “The goal is for public opinion to continue to mobilize, for all those who have not yet done so to sign the petition and use the hashtag #FreePaulWatson”the president of Sea Shepherd tells West France.

A few dozen people in Strasbourg, around sixty in Caen, around a hundred in Toulouse… Demonstrations have taken place one after the other in recent weeks across France. “We are very grateful to France and the French, it is really the locomotive of the mobilization of public opinion. This is where there is the most fervor”says Lamya Essemlali.

Enough to warm the heart of the Sea Shepherd captain? “He is starting to find the time long and has a great sense of injustice. He finds it surreal to still be in prison a month later.”says the president of the NGO in France, who was able to speak with him. “But he is pleased that this case is shining a spotlight on Japan’s actions towards whales.”