“Japan is hunting down Paul Watson with a view to revenge,” says the president of the NGO in France

The Nuuk court in Greenland ruled on Thursday to keep the American-Canadian environmental activist arrested on July 21 in detention until early September. He faces extradition to Japan.

Lamya Essemlali, president and founder of the NGO Sea Shepherd France, reacted on Thursday August 15 to the decision of the Greenland courts to keep Paul Watson in prison. “Japan is hunting down Paul Watson for revenge”she said, as the founder of Sea Shepherd and fervent defender of whales was arrested in Greenland (Denmark) on July 21. He risks extradition to Japan. In the meantime, he is being held in pretrial detention until at least September 5. The Canadian environmental and anti-speciesist activist has been the subject of an Interpol red notice since 2012. Japan accuses him of being jointly responsible for damage and injuries on board a Japanese whaling ship in 2010.

franceinfo: Paul Watson told journalists outside the Nuuk court in Greenland that this whole affair would increase pressure on Japan over its illegal whaling activities. Do you share this form of optimism?

Lamya Essemlali: It’s more of a form of lucidity about the situation. By doing what Japan is doing, it’s shining a spotlight on whaling, in a way that has rarely been the case today. Beyond Paul Watson, what’s at stake is the fact that Japan has illegally violated the international whale sanctuary for years and has illegally killed tens of thousands of whales, also in violation of the international moratorium on the trade in whale meat. Japan considers itself to be above the law. What Paul Watson did was uphold the integrity of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary around Antarctica in 2010. And today, all of this is being put on the table by the fact that Japan is hunting down Paul Watson in a spirit of revenge.

However, he is the one in the dock and who has great difficulty defending himself in this trial which seems complicated…

Absolutely, and it’s very revealing. The fact that Paul Watson is in the dock today and not Japan says a lot about the current state of the world, about the hypocrisy of our treaties for the conservation of protected species. It also raises the question of the reality of these animal protections and the protection of people who are fighting so that we have a living planet.

Were you also worried about the course of the trial?

What shocked us more was that there was no interpreter. This is a fundamental right 99% of the time. We didn’t understand anything that was being said. We didn’t understand anything about the prosecutor’s indictment. It’s unacceptable. What was also very shocking was that the judge was not at all interested in the video evidence provided by our lawyers that shows that the Japanese falsified evidence to accuse Paul Watson of violence. We are now able to demonstrate that all of this is false and the judge was not at all interested in this evidence. So, we are going to broadcast it publicly so that the public understands what is happening.

Is it now up to you to mobilise this public opinion even more?

Very clearly, the role of public opinion and media coverage is fundamental. We are clearly in a political issue. On a purely legal basis, Paul Watson should not have spent even a single day in prison. Moreover, I really salute France, which, to date, is the only country that has spoken out publicly at the highest level of the State to demand the release of Paul Watson. What is still shocking is that there are no other governments that are doing so, knowing that they have all ratified the whale sanctuary in Antarctica, they have all ratified the international moratorium on the trade in whale meat and therefore they all had the responsibility to enforce these bans. Paul Watson did their job, they should mobilize to defend him today.

Are you worried about extradition for trial in Japan? The Japanese justice system is known for being very harsh. Usually, when the prosecutor launches a case, it ends in guilt.

It’s more than hard. Paul Watson has no hope of having a fair trial in Japan. Today, we have no idea when the Danish Ministry of Justice will make its decision on the extradition. But it is very clear that if Paul Watson is extradited to Japan, he will die there since there will be no justice. What they will want is to obtain an apology. And they do not hesitate to resort to torture, they have been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights on the subject. At 74, Paul Watson will not resist this treatment for long. And above all, he will never apologize for having saved whales. So yes, we fear the worst for him if he is sent there.