Environmental activist Paul Watson freed after Denmark refuses his extradition to Japan
The Danish government has released environmental activist Paul Watson after rejecting Japan's extradition request. The founder of the NGO Sea Shepherd, who has been detained in Greenland since this summer, can now return to France, where he lives with his wife and two young children.
Denmark ha finally made the formal decision to refuse his extradition to Japan, Paul Watson's lawyers told French daily Libération on Tuesday.
"Our Danish colleagues have just given us the good news," Emmanuel Jez, one of Watson's French advisors said.
The 73-year-old activist will finally be able to leave Greenland after 149 days in prison and return to France where his wife and children are based.
Watson's detention was extended six times since July, and four of his appeals rejected, before the Minister of Justice, Peter Hummelgaard, made his decision.
"The procedure took longer than expected and hoped, given the public interest in this matter," the minister’s office told Libération.
Political pawn
Watson, was one of the founding members of Greenpeace. He went on to create Sea Shepherd and then the Captain Paul Watson Foundation.
He was detained on 21 July in Nuuk, capital of the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland.
He had been refueling his ship John Paul DeJoria, before heading on to "intercept" a new Japanese whaling factory vessel in the North Pacific, according to the CPWF.
He has been the subject of a Japanese arrest warrant since 2012, which accuses him of causing damage to a whaling ship in the Antarctic in February 2010.
(With newswires)
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