COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A court in Greenland ruled Wednesday that anti-whaling activist Paul Watson must remain in custody until Oct. 23 to ensure his presence in connection with a Danish Justice Ministry decision on extradition. It was unclear when the Danes would decide whether to send him to Japan, where he is accused of forcibly obstructing the work of a whale research vessel in 2010.
“They threw such objects deliberately, so it is to harm people,” prosecutor Mariam Khalil said in court, according to Greenland’s Sermitsiaq newspaper, referring to potassium acid thrown at the Japanese ship by Watson’s team.
Watson, a 73-year-old Canadian-American citizen, is a former head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society whose direct action tactics, including confrontations on the high seas with whalers, have drawn support from A-list celebrities and are in reality included. television series ‘Whale Wars’.
Watson was arrested on July 21 when his ship docked in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and a court there approved his detention while Danish authorities investigated his possible extradition to Japan, where he faces up to 15 years in prison, according to the Captain Paul Watson Foundation.
Greenland is an autonomous region of Denmark that handles police and justice matters. Japan does not have an extradition treaty with the Scandinavian country.
The Japanese Coast Guard requested his arrest over an encounter with a Japanese whaling research ship in 2010, when he was accused of obstructing the crew’s official duties by ordering his ship’s captain to throw explosives at the whaling ship.
The foundation posted a video on X on Wednesday of Watson in his cell in Nuuk, in which he said: “In fifty years I have not harmed a single person. I have operated within the limits of international law and within the limits of practice.”
“I am confident that once the evidence here has been reviewed by the appropriate authorities, there will be no further reason to grant Japan’s extradition request,” Watson said in the video released by the foundation.
Whale meat has always been part of Japanese food culture, and the Japanese government says it supports the sustainable use of whales.
Watson, who left Sea Shepherd in 2022, was also a leading member of Greenpeace but left in 1977 amid disagreements over his aggressive tactics and founded the more action-oriented organization. The group has waged aggressive campaigns to protect whales, dolphins and other marine animals.