Denmark will not extradite anti-whaling activist Watson to Japan

NEWS WIRES

17 December 2024 at 6:38 am·1-min read

File photo of NGO Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder, Paul Watson of Canada, posing on board of the "Brigitte Bardot", a Sea Shepherd multihull moored in Paris, on January 15, 2015.

Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson was freed from prison in Denmark on Tuesday, his lawyer told AFP, and he will not be extradited to Japan. Watson was detained on a 2012 Japanese arrest warrant, which accuses him of causing damage to a whaling ship in the Antarctic in 2010 and injuring a whaler.

Denmark on Tuesday decided not to extradite to Japan anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who has been detained in Greenland since July, his lawyer told AFP.

Watson was detained on a 2012 Japanese arrest warrant, which accuses him of causing damage to a whaling ship in the Antarctic in 2010 and injuring a whaler.

"He is free. We've just been informed by the Ministry of Justice, he's not going to be extradited," Watson's lawyer Julie Stage told AFP, adding that Watson would be able to leave jail in Greenland.

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.

According to documents viewed by AFP, Denmark reached its decision while considering the duration of Watson's detention following his arrest and the time it would take for a possible extradition to be carried out.

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

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