Antiwhaling activist Paul Watson released as Denmark rejects extradition

Copenhagen rejects Japan’s extradition request over a 2010 incident involving a Japanese whaling ship in the Antarctic.

Antiwhaling activist Paul Watson has been freed from a prison in Greenland and will not be extradited to Japan, the Danish Ministry of Justice says.

Japan had asked Denmark to extradite Watson, who had been in custody in Greenland since his arrest in July. Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark.

Peter Hummelgaard, Denmark’s minister of justice, said on Tuesday that he had not received sufficient assurances from Japan’s government that Watson’s five months in jail would be deducted from any future sentence.

Watson was apprehended in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, on July 21 by police officers while refuelling a ship. Local police were acting on an Interpol red notice issued by Japan.

Tokyo accused Watson of conspiracy to trespass, interrupting a business and causing damage to a Japanese whaling ship in 2010 in the Antarctic.

The charges, which also included assaulting a crew member, carried a jail sentence of up to 15 years.

‘Good to be out’

Watson, a pioneer behind the founding of Greenpeace and a former head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, has spent decades trying to thwart whalers on the high seas.

His well-documented confrontations with whaling vessels have drawn support from numerous celebrities.

Watson has denied the Japanese government’s allegations.

“After five months, it’s good to be out and … good to see that they are not going to send me to Japan and so have a go-home for Christmas,” Watson said in a video posted by his foundation on social media after his release.

“The only hard part was that my two little boys, … I haven’t seen them since June,” he added.

“We are happy and relieved that Paul Watson is now free,” his lawyer Jonas Christoffersen said.

“I guess he will have some lunch or breakfast as a free man and then will find a way to get back home.”

Watson, a Canadian-American citizen, was previously detained in Germany in 2012 on a Costa Rican extradition warrant but skipped bail after learning that he was also sought for extradition by Japan.

He has since lived in countries that include France and the United States.

Japan withdrew from the International Whaling Commission in 2019 and has since resumed commercial whaling within its maritime exclusive economic zone.

Japan says whale meat is part of its food culture and it supports sustainable use of whales.