Whaling activist Paul Watson freed after Denmark rejects extradition

Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson walks after being released from prison in Nuuk, Greenland, on December 17, 2024. Photo / AFP

• Paul Watson was released after Denmark refused Japan’s extradition request over a 2010 whaling clash.
• Watson’s detention highlighted Japan’s whaling and Denmark’s dolphin and whale killings in the Faroe Islands.
• His lawyers plan to challenge the Interpol Red Notice and Japanese arrest warrant.

Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson was on Tuesday released from detention after Denmark refused a Japanese extradition request over a 2010 clash with whalers.

Watson had been held in Greenland since July on a 2012 Japanese warrant accusing him of causing damage to a whaling ship and injuring a whaler.

“It’s been five months and this is the first day of freedom, so I’m feeling great,” Watson told AFP in a video call shortly after his release from the Danish autonomous territory.

“My arrest has focused international attention on Japan’s continuing illegal whaling operations and their intent to go back to the Southern Ocean,” the 74-year-old said. “So, in fact, these five months have been an extension of the campaign.”

He added that his detention had also highlighted Denmark’s “illegal killing of dolphins and whales in the Faroe Islands”.

Watson, who featured in the reality TV series Whale Wars, founded Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF) and is known for radical tactics including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.

Jean Tamalet, one of Watson’s lawyers, told AFP that “the fight is not over”.

“We will now have to challenge the red notice and the Japanese arrest warrant, to ensure that Captain Paul Watson can once again travel the world in complete peace of mind, and never experience a similar episode again,” Tamalet said.

Watson also lamented being on the Interpol Red Notice list, saying it “is for serial killers, war criminals, and major drug traffickers”.

Lamya Essemlali, head of Sea Shepherd France, told AFP that she “still can’t believe it”.

Speaking alongside Watson following his release, said she “was ready for the worst, getting ready to fight, even to get him out of Japan if we had to”.

According to documents viewed by AFP, Denmark’s decision was based on the duration of Watson’s detention following his arrest and the time it would take to carry out a possible extradition.

The ministry also considered “the fact that the acts for which extradition is sought are more than 14 years ago, and the nature of the acts in general”.

Contacted by AFP, Japanese foreign ministry officials in charge of the issue were not immediately available for comment.

Tokyo accuses Watson of injuring a Japanese crew member with a stink bomb intended to disrupt the whalers' activities during a Sea Shepherd clash with the Shonan Maru 2 vessel in 2010.

Watson’s lawyers have said they have video footage proving the crew member was not on deck when the stink bomb was thrown.

“Japan tried to silence a man whose only crime was to denounce the illegality of the industrial massacre disguised as scientific research,” one of his lawyers, Francois Zimeray, told AFP.

Watson would not get a fair trial in Japan, where “there is a presumption of guilt”, he told AFP. “Prosecutors are proud to announce that they have a 99.6% conviction rate.”

In September, Watson’s lawyers contacted the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders, claiming that he could be “subjected to inhumane treatment” in Japanese prisons.

Danish Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard stressed that the decision was based on the specifics of the case and “does not mean that Denmark shares the concerns that have been raised in certain circles about the Japanese legal system”.

“Japan is a democratic state that respects fundamental human rights. There has also been a good and close dialogue with the Japanese authorities,” Hummelgaard said.

In a rare public comment on the case, Japan’s Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya has said that the extradition request was “an issue of law enforcement at sea rather than a whaling issue”.

Watson wants to return to France, where he had been living since July 2023 and where his two young children attend school. He requested French citizenship in October.

Watson’s legal woes have attracted support from the public and activists, including prominent British conservationist Jane Goodall, who has urged French President Emmanuel Macron to grant him political asylum.

– Agence France-Presse