By AFP . Agence France Presse
Greenland extends detention of whaling activist Watson.
Camille BAS-WOHLERT
A Greenland court on Monday extended the detention of US-Canadian activist Paul Watson for another two weeks, pending a decision on his possible extradition to Japan, police said.
The hearing was Watson's sixth since his arrest in July in Nuuk, the capital of the Danish autonomous territory.
Watson, who turned 74 on Monday, was arrested based on a 2012 Japanese arrest warrant, which accuses him of damaging a whaling ship in Antarctica in 2010 and injuring a whaler.
“The Greenland court decided today that Paul Watson should continue to be detained until December 18, 2024, to ensure his presence in connection with the decision on extradition,” the police said in a statement.
Prosecutor Mariam Khalil had requested a four-week extension to the period of pre-trial detention, while Watson's lawyer, Julie Stage, had asked for his release.
“We disagree with the decision and have lodged an appeal,” Stage told AFP after the ruling.
Watson, who took part in the reality TV show “Whale Wars,” founded Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF) and is known for his radical tactics, including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.
Watson was arrested on July 21 when his ship, the John Paul DeJoria, docked to refuel in Nuuk on its way to “intercept” a new Japanese whaling factory ship in the North Pacific, according to the CPWF.
- Decision pending -
The Danish justice ministry, which has consulted the Greenland police and the Danish attorney general on the case, told AFP at the weekend that it was close to a decision on the matter.
“The Danish Ministry of Justice is currently processing the extradition request... hoping to make a decision soon,” it said in a statement.
At the end of November, Watson's lawyers asked Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard to block the extradition.
If Denmark refuses his extradition, “there would be no further reason for detention, and (Watson) would be released as soon as possible,” Khalil explained to AFP in November.
If Denmark agreed to Japan's extradition request, Watson's lawyers would file an appeal.
According to Stage, the decision should be made “within 14 days”.
Tokyo accuses Watson of injuring a Japanese crew member with a stink bomb intended to disrupt the whalers' activities during a Sea Shepherd confrontation with the ship Shonan Maru 2 in 2010.
Watson's lawyers insist he is innocent and say they have video footage that proves the crew member was not on deck when the stink bomb was dropped. The Nuuk court refused to see the video.
In September, Watson's lawyers contacted the UN special rapporteur for environmental defenders, claiming that he could be “subjected to inhumane treatment” in Japanese prisons.
The defense team argued that the crime of which Japan accuses him is not even punishable by imprisonment in Greenland, a point on which the prosecution disagrees.
In a rare public comment on the case, Japan's foreign minister, Takeshi Iwaya, said that the extradition request was “a matter of law enforcement at sea and not a matter of whaling.”
Watson hopes to be released to return to France, where he has been living since July 2023 and where his two young children attend school.
He applied for French citizenship in October.
Watson's legal problems have attracted support from members of the public and activists, including prominent British conservationist Jane Goodall, who has called on French President Emmanuel Macron to grant him political asylum.
A petition for his release has gathered more than 210,000 signatures, and around 220,000 have signed in support of his request for French citizenship.
cbw/po/jm
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