Greenland extends detention of anti-whaling activist Paul Watson

A Greenland court on Monday, December 2, extended the detention of US-Canadian anti-whaling activist Paul Watson for two more 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, capital of the Danish autonomous territory.

“The court in Greenland has today decided that Paul Watson shall continue to be detained until December 18, 2024, in order to ensure his presence in connection with the decision on extradition,” 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 sought his release.

Watson founded Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF) and is known for radical tactics including confrontations with whaling ships at sea. He 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 vessel in the North Pacific, according to the CPWF.

Watson, who turned 74 on Monday, was detained on a 2012 Japanese arrest warrant, which accuses him of injuring a Japanese crew member with a stink bomb intended to disrupt the whalers’ activities during a Sea Shepherd clash with the Shonan Maru 2 vessel in 2010. Watson’s lawyers insist he is innocent and say they have video footage proving the crew member was not on deck when the stink bomb was thrown. The Nuuk court has refused to view the video.

Decision pending

The Danish justice ministry, which has consulted with Greenland police and the Danish prosecutor general on the case, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) over the weekend that it was nearing a decision on the matter. “The Danish Ministry of Justice is currently processing the extradition request… expecting to soon make a decision,” it said in a statement.

In late November, Watson’s lawyers urged Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard to block the extradition. If Denmark were to agree to Japan’s extradition request, Watson’s lawyers would lodge an appeal.

In September, Watson’s lawyers contacted the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders, claiming that he could be “subjected to inhumane treatment” in Japanese prisons.

The defense team has argued that the crime of which Japan accuses him does not even carry a jail sentence in Greenland, a point on which the prosecution disagrees.

Watson hopes to be freed to return to France, where he had been living since July 2023 and where his two young children attend school. He requested French citizenship in October.