The whale protection activist spent five months in detention in Denmark while he faced extradition to Japan, which accuses him of being responsible for damage and injuries aboard a Japanese whaling ship in 2010. He was released this Tuesday, December 17.
Paul Watson is “ready to continue the fight”. Guest of Quotidien on TMC this Wednesday, December 18, the environmental activist returned to his release on Tuesday after Denmark’s rejection of Japan’s extradition request. “It’s been a very long time, I’m really relieved to be free and to be able to spend Christmas with my children,” he confided.
He was arrested in Nuuk on July 21 after the relaunch of a request issued by Japan in 2012 via an Interpol red notice. Japanese authorities accuse him of being co-responsible for damage and injuries aboard a Japanese whaling ship in 2010 as part of a campaign led by the Sea Shepherd organization.
Paul Watson is not ready to stop his fight. “I’ve been doing this for 50 years and I can’t imagine retiring so I’m going to continue doing what I’ve done all my life successfully,” he said on Quotidien.
“This affair was highly political”
The activist explains that he and his teams have a ship stationed in Australia “which is ready to return to the Antarctic whaling sanctuary if Japan ever returns there.”
“We also have a boat in the Atlantic that is preparing to oppose Iceland’s whaling when they start killing whales again next summer,” adds Paul Watson. Only three countries still practice whaling: Japan, Norway and Iceland.
Shortly after his release, Paul Watson said his detention had drawn attention to the “illegality” of whaling. “This affair was highly political and very clearly if it had not been for the mobilization of France, Paul would be in Japan today”, underlined on Quotidien Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France.
The Scandinavian country based its refusal on “the total duration of the detention of Paul Franklin Watson after his arrest on July 21, 2024 and until a possible extradition decision can be executed, and on (the) fact that the acts for which extradition is requested date back more than 14 years, as well as the nature of the acts in general,” according to the decision consulted by AFP.
