(Copenhagen) More than two weeks after his arrest in Greenland, American-Canadian environmental activist Paul Watson considers his detention and Japan’s extradition request to be “political”, the NGO Sea Shepherd France said on Thursday.
“He is very clear-sighted about the situation. He is aware that Japan is putting all its political weight behind it, that he is a political symbol,” Lamya Essemlali, president of the NGO, who “almost every day” visits him at the prison in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, told AFP.
Targeted by an international arrest warrant issued by the Japanese authorities, the famous 73-year-old activist, who has been living in France for a year, was apprehended on his ship which had just docked in Nuuk, to refuel with a view to “intercepting” Japan’s new whaling factory ship in the North Pacific.
The 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.
Japan requested his extradition from Danish authorities in late July. “Even if he were guilty, it is clear that there has never been an extradition based on such minor facts,” Mr.me Essemlali. The Nuuk court is due to rule on his continued detention on 15 August. The decision on extradition, which is ultimately the responsibility of the Danish Ministry of Justice, is to be taken separately from this hearing.
“He has no regrets, he knows what he did was right,” Mr.me Essemlali who “did not imagine that Denmark would arrest Paul Watson and consider extradition.”
According to her, “in a Japanese prison, Paul Watson as a Western activist would be particularly mistreated.” In Japan, the activist faces a prison sentence of more than 15 years and a fine of up to 500,000 yen (more than 3,000 euros).
His arrest sparked a large-scale protest and the French presidency asked the Danish authorities not to extradite him. Several demonstrations are due to take place this weekend in France before one in Copenhagen on Monday.
Former French actress Brigitte Bardot sent a letter to the Danish prime minister on Thursday calling on her “not to choose the side of the gravediggers of the oceans.” Japan, Norway and Iceland are the last countries still practicing commercial whaling.