Mobilizations in France against the extradition of the founder of the NGO Sea Shepherd from Denmark to Japan

The founder of the NGO Sea Shepherd was arrested by Danish authorities on July 21.

Dozens of people, activists, sympathizers or personalities, demonstrated on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 August in several cities in France, including Paris, against the possible extradition of environmental activist and whale defender Paul Watson, arrested in Greenland, to Japan. Under the slogans: “Denmark, the world is watching you!” Or “Saving whales is not a crime”some 150 people gathered in Paris on Sunday asked for “Free Paul Watson”the 73-year-old American-Canadian activist who was arrested on July 21 in Greenland on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by Japan.

Rallies challenging Denmark took place in other cities this weekend, including Lyon and Bordeaux, as well as in Ireland. “Paul Watson is not a terrorist, he has dedicated his entire life to defending the oceans that are essential to human life”argued Dominique de Malliard, the group’s coordinator in Lyon.

“Why is Denmark holding Paul Watson when it signed the international moratorium banning whaling?” worried Michel Blazy of Sea Shepherd France in Paris. Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd ocean defense movement in 1977, was arrested on his ship that had just docked in Nuuk to refuel, with a view to “to intercept” Japan’s new whaling factory ship in the North Pacific.

His arrest was made on the basis of an Interpol red notice issued in 2012, when Japan accused him of causing damage and injuries on board a Japanese whaling ship two years earlier in the Antarctic Ocean. A judge in the High Court of Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory, is due to decide on Thursday whether to extend his deprivation of liberty.