A Greenland court on Wednesday extended the detention of anti-whaling activist Paul Watson for three more weeks, pending a decision on his possible extradition to Japan for an altercation with whalers in 2010.
This marks the fourth extension of his detention since Watson was arrested in July in Nuuk, capital of the Danish autonomous territory.
“The court in Greenland has today decided that Paul Watson shall continue to be detained until November 13, 2024 in order to ensure his presence in connection with the decision on extradition,” Greenland police said in a statement.
Police added that Watson had immediately appealed the decision.
Watson was arrested on July 21 when his ship docked to refuel in Nuuk on its way to “intercept” a Japanese whaling vessel in the North Pacific, according to his foundation.
He was detained on a 2012 Japanese arrest warrant that accuses him of causing damage to a whaling ship in the Antarctic in 2010 and injuring a whaler.
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.
‘Inhumane treatment’
In a rare public comment on the case, Japan’s Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya recently insisted the extradition request was “an issue of law enforcement at sea rather than a whaling issue”.
But Watson told reporters as he left court on Wednesday that the Japanese were running a “criminal enterprise”.
“They’re just using the Danish judicial system to get their way. And they want to go back to killing whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary again,” he said.
Tokyo accuses Watson of injuring a Japanese crew member with a stink bomb intended to disrupt the whalers’ activities, during a clash with the Shonan Maru 2 vessel on February 11, 2010.
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Watson’s lawyers insist he is innocent and say they have video footage proving the crew member was not on deck when the stink bomb was thrown. The Nuuk court has refused to view the video.
One of Watson’s lawyers, Finn Meinel, told AFP the legal proceedings were “very disappointing”.
“We are still not allowed to present the evidence showing that the case brought against Paul has no basis,” he said.
The custody hearings are solely about Watson’s detention, with the extradition request being reviewed by Denmark’s justice ministry.
Meinel said he expected the ministry to decide on the extradition before the next detention hearing.
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.
‘Brave man’
Watson had been living in France at the time of his arrest and has written to French President Emmanuel Macron to ask for political asylum.
World-respected British conservationist Jane Goodall told AFP last week she hoped France would accept his plea, calling him a “brave man”.
As Watson’s hearing began on Wednesday, several dozen supporters demonstrated outside city hall in Paris, chanting “Free Paul Watson” and holding signs reading “A hero doesn’t belong in prison” and “Saving whales is not a crime”.
French officials have previously urged Copenhagen not to extradite him, but have said that a person must be in France to file an asylum claim.
Japan, Norway and Iceland are the only three countries that still allow commercial whaling.
(AFP)
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Publish date : 2024-10-23 05:35:00
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