COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A court in Greenland decided again Wednesday to extend the detention of anti-whaling activist Paul Watson until Dec. 4 while Denmark considers a Japanese extradition request.
Japan does not have an extradition treaty with the Scandinavian country. Greenland is an autonomous region of Denmark and handles police and justice matters.
Watson, a 73-year-old Canadian-American citizen, is the former head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The direct action tactics, including high seas confrontations with whalers, have drawn support from A-list celebrities and were featured on the reality television series “Whale Wars.”
Watson was arrested on July 21 when his ship docked in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. A Greenland court has repeatedly approved his detention while Danish authorities investigate his possible extradition to Japan, where he faces up to 15 years in prison, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation said.
“It is not fair that Watson is being held in a case that should have been concluded a long time ago,” Watson’s lawyer, Finn Meinel, said, according to Greenland’s Sermitsiaq newspaper.
The Japanese Coast Guard requested his arrest after an encounter with a Japanese whaling research vessel in 2010. Watson was accused of obstructing the crew’s official duties by ordering his ship’s captain to throw explosives at the research vessel.
Sermitsiaq quoted Watson telling the court that “nobody was hurt at the time. It’s completely ridiculous,” and that “Japan is a criminal nation and Denmark supports it.”
Prosecutor Mariam Khalil previously said there was a flight risk and an extension of detention was necessary.
Sea Shepherd France has said that Watson has asked the French president for political asylum.
