Environmental activist Paul Watson has been detained until Aug. 15, authorities and his foundation said.
Greenland police have arrested veteran environmental and anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, on an international arrest warrant issued by Japan.
Watson, a 73-year-old Canadian-American, is the former president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, whose direct tactics, including high-seas confrontations with whaling ships, have gained A-list celebrity support and been featured in a reality TV series called Whale Wars.
Japan, which says eating whale meat is part of its culture, resumed commercial whaling in 2019 and has since modernized its fleet and expanded its catch list, drawing condemnation from conservationists who fear for the fate of the large marine mammals.
“The Japanese authorities have issued an international arrest warrant for Paul Watson, which is why the Greenland police are prepared to arrest him upon his arrival in Nuuk,” Greenland’s law enforcement agency said in a statement on Monday.
The statement added that Watson appeared before a district court after his arrest to consider his detention request pending a decision on his possible extradition to Japan.
The veteran environmental activist will remain in detention in Nuuk until at least Aug. 15, after the court’s decision, to give the Danish Justice Ministry time to investigate the case and potentially extradite him, the Capt. Paul Watson Foundation told The Associated Press on Monday.
Watson faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison in Japan, according to the foundation, which also said a Greenland court would not grant him bail because he was considered a flight risk.
“We are calling on the Danish government to release Captain Watson and not to accede to this politically motivated request,” said Luke McLean, director of the foundation, in the statement.
Greenland is an autonomous region of Denmark. There is no extradition treaty between Japan and the European country, and it is not known if or when Watson will be extradited.
Neither the Japanese Coast Guard nor the Japanese Foreign Ministry, which issued the international arrest warrant for Watson, have confirmed that they are negotiating Watson’s extradition.
However, the Coast Guard, the lead investigative authority in the Watson case in Japan, said Monday that officials were on standby in case an extradition order was issued.
This isn’t the first time Watson’s tactics have put him in trouble with the authorities.
He was arrested in Germany in 2012 on an extradition warrant from Costa Rica, but skipped bail after learning he was also wanted for extradition by Japan, which accused him of endangering the lives of whalers during operations in the Antarctic Ocean.
Watson has since lived in various countries, including France and the United States.
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