A court in Greenland has ruled that anti-whaling activist Paul Watson must remain in custody pending a decision to extradite him to Japan.
The campaign veteran, who has appeared on the television show “Whale Wars”, was arrested by police in July when his ship docked in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk.
They were working on a 2012 Japanese warrant accusing him of causing damage to a Japanese whaling ship, disrupting business and injuring a crew member during an encounter in Antarctic waters in February 2010.
Japanese officials argue that whaling and eating whale meat is part of the country’s culture and way of life. However, it has been heavily criticized by conservation groups.
Dressed in jeans and a white shirt, Mr Watson sat next to his defense lawyers and listened to the proceedings through an interpreter as a few supporters looked on.
“This is about revenge for a television show that embarrassed Japan in the eyes of the world,” he told the lower court.
“What happens in the Southern Ocean is documented by hundreds of hours of video,” Mr Watson said.
“I think a review of all the video and all the documents will exonerate me from the charges against me.”
However, the prosecutor said that the defendant is a flight risk, the judge concluded that he should remain in custody until October 2.
Paul Watson is the former head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which he left in 2022 to establish the Captain Paul Watson Foundation.
He was also a founding member of Greenpeace, but they split in 1977, amid disagreements over his radical policies.
The 73-year-old Canadian-American campaigner was a controversial figure known for confronting whaling vessels at sea.
Mr Watson’s ship, named the M/Y John Paul DeJoria, was en route to the North Pacific with a crew of 26 volunteers on board, in an attempt to intercept a new Japanese whaling ship when it stopped to refuel at Nuuk on 21 July.
He was arrested and led away in handcuffs, and has been held in the local jail for the past seven weeks.
His defense team filed an appeal against the decision to keep him in custody before the Supreme Court of Greenland.
Greenland is a sovereign territory of Denmark and, although the court in Nuuk presided over the detention hearing, the decision on Mr Watson’s extradition rests with the Danish authorities in Copenhagen.
Last month, Japan asked Denmark to hand over Paul Watson, although there is no extradition agreement between the two countries.
Police in Nuuk are conducting an investigation before submitting their findings to Denmark’s justice minister and a decision can be expected in the next few weeks.
“It is a serious case, and it should be seriously investigated. It has a profound effect on Mr. Watson when we get to the point that he has to be expelled. So I will take the necessary time to do it right,” Greenland’s chief prosecutor Mariam Khalil told the BBC.
At the request of the accused, the judge gave permission for the video clip to be played, which appeared to show a speedboat of the zodiac type moving close to a Japanese ship and detonating a stink bomb.
However, Mr Watson’s lawyers said a second video clip, which has not been shown, proved no one was on the deck at the time.
“We have video footage of a stink bomb being fired at the ship, and the situation where the Japanese say the sailor should be, is not there,” Jonas Christoffersen told the BBC.
“There is no evidence to suggest that anyone was injured.”
The Lyon-based international police agency Interpol confirmed the existence of a red alert for Mr Watson’s arrest.
In 2012, Paul Watson was also arrested in Germany, but he left the country after hearing that he was being extradited to Japan.
Masashi Mizobuchi, assistant press secretary for Japan’s foreign ministry, told the BBC that Japan had not yet received a response from the Danish authorities.
“We will continue to take appropriate measures, including the necessary access to relevant countries and organizations,” said Mr. Mizobuchi.
Japan withdrew from the International Whaling Commission and resumed whaling in 2019, after a 30-year hiatus. However, it had continued whaling for what it said were research purposes.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s office has called on Denmark not to retaliate against Paul Watson, and there has been vocal support for actress-turned-animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot.
Meanwhile, a petition to free Mr Watson has surpassed 120,000 signatures.
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