Denmark has rejected Japan’s request to extradite anti-whaling activist Paul Watson on criminal charges dating back more than a decade, a Danish lawyer representing Watson said Tuesday.
Watson, 74, a Canadian-American and founder of the environmental group Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, has been released from detention in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, Greenland police said.
Watson was arrested when his ship docked in the autonomous Danish territory in July.
“Paul is free!!!” wrote Sea Shepherd France on the social media platform
The Danish Justice Ministry, tasked with handling the extradition request, declined to immediately comment but said it would issue a statement later Tuesday.
Charges related to the 2010 incident
Japan had issued an international arrest warrant for Watson, accusing him of raiding a Japanese vessel in the Southern Ocean in 2010, obstructing its activities and causing injury and property damage.
Watson has denied the allegations against him. His lawyers said the Japanese justice system could not be trusted to give the activist a fair trial and that Denmark should reject the extradition request.
CBC News Network’s Deana Sumanac-Johnson speaks with Locky MacLean of the Captain Paul Watson Foundation
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Watson’s supporters had launched a campaign for his release, winning support from politicians and celebrities including French President Emmanuel Macron, Brigitte Bardot and Irish actor Pierce Brosnan.
According to the Danish Ministry of Justice, France, where Watson has resided since 2023, has also discussed Watson’s case at ministerial level.
A spokesman for the Japanese embassy in Copenhagen declined to comment.
Watson left Sea Shepherd in 2022 to create his own organization. He was also a leading member of Greenpeace before leaving it in 1977 due to disagreements over tactics.
