AFP – Denmark’s justice ministry said yesterday that it had received Japan’s extradition request for anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who was detained in Greenland last month on an international arrest warrant.
Watson, the 73-year-old American-Canadian founder of the Sea Shepherd activist group, was arrested on July 21 in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, over a 2010 altercation with Japanese whaling ships.
Watson, who featured in the reality television series Whale Wars, founded Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF), and is known for direct action tactics including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.
“The Ministry of Justice received a formal extradition request regarding Paul Watson from the Japanese authorities yesterday,” the ministry told AFP in an e-mail.
It said it would forward the case to Greenland police, “unless the ministry on the present basis finds grounds to reject the extradition request beforehand”.
If the case is forwarded to Greenland police, they will investigate “whether there is basis for extradition”, including whether it is in accordance with the extradition act applicable to Greenland, the ministry said.
But the ultimate decision on Watson’s extradition will be made by Denmark’s justice ministry, it added.
A custody hearing will be held in Greenland on August 15, pending a Danish decision on the extradition request.
Watson was arrested after arriving in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, when the ship John Paul DeJoria docked to refuel.
The vessel was on its way to “intercept” a new Japanese whaling factory vessel in the North Pacific, according to the CPWF.
On Tuesday, the head of the French branch of Sea Shepherd said Watson had no regrets despite the risk of extradition.
“Paul is doing well, he is in good spirits. He has no regrets,” Lamya Essemlali said in a statement after visiting Watson in custody on Monday.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s office has asked Danish authorities not to extradite Watson, who has lived in France for the past year.
