Captain Paul Watson, the vegan anti-whaling campaigner who co-founded Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, has been released from a Danish jail in Greenland after Denmark rejected Japan’s extradition request for alleged crimes during anti-whaling operations.
On 21st July 2024, Captain Watson was arrested in Greenland by Danish police pursuing an international arrest warrant issued by Japan. The arrest took place during a stop-off on a mission to intercept Japan’s newly built factory whaling ship Kangei Maru in the North Pacific. While detained in Greenland awaiting possible extradition to Japan, Watson appealed to President Emmanuel Macron for political asylum in France, where he had resided for a few years before his detention.
On 17th December 2024, after 150 days in jail on the Danish autonomous territory, Watson was told that the Danish authorities had decided he was free to leave the island. On that day, Watson told the Guardian, “I am certainly relieved as this means I get to see my two little boys. That’s really been my only concern this entire time. I understand the risks of what we do and sometimes you get arrested — although I am proud of the fact that I have never been convicted of a crime…My time in jail has at least served the purpose of focusing attention on Japan’s illegal whaling operations and the added benefit of focusing attention of the killing of dolphins on the Danish Faroe islands. So in that sense it was a successful campaign…My position is that you prepare for the worst and hope for the best, that’s all you can do. One day I would feel confident and then others, well, you know, Japan was putting a lot of economic pressure on Denmark. Fortunately, Denmark has got a good record on human rights.”
Peter Hummelgaard, Denmark’s minister for justice, said he had not received sufficient assurances from Japan that Watson’s five months in jail awaiting extradition would be deducted from any future sentence.
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