Danish authorities agreed to release anti-whaling activist Paul Watson and denied a request by Japan to extradite him. Photo by Mads Madsen/EPA-EFE
Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson was released from detention in Greenland, his attorney said on Tuesday.
Watson, who had been held in the autonomous territory of Denmark for five months, was set free after Danish authorities chose to reject requests to extradite Watson to Japan where he faces a 12-year-old warrant issued for a 2010 incident involving a Japanese whaling ship. Advertisement
Denmark’s justice ministry said it would not turn over Watson because of the “nature of circumstances” and the time lapse between the incident and the actual arrest.
“I am glad that the minister decided not to give in Japan,” Watson’s attorney Julie Stage said, according to The New York Times. “He is obviously relieved and is now looking forward to reuniting with his wife and children. It has been five long months.”
Watson, who was featured on the television series Whale Wars for his aggressive tactics to whalers as part of his Sea Shephard Conservation Society, told he BBC after his release that he believed the publicity surrounding his arrest actually hurt Japan because it returned focus on its whaling industry, which has long been scorned by environmentalists and conservationists. He said is also helped him make his case about the 2010 incident cited by Japan. Advertisement
“All the evidence shows that I wasn’t even there when this offense supposedly took place,” Watson told BBC News. “We documented everything. Everything is on film.”
Japan has continued to argue that whaling is part of their culture.
