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AFPAnti-whaling activist Paul Watson has been released from prison in Greenland, where he spent five months in custody, after Denmark rejected Japan’s extradition request.
Mr Watson, 74, was detained by police when his ship docked in the Greenlandic capital of Nuuk last July.
Police were acting on a 2012 Japanese warrant accusing him of damaging a Japanese whaling vessel, obstructing business and injuring a crew member during a collision in Antarctic waters in February 2010.
Mr Watson, who is a Canadian-American citizen and appeared on the reality TV show Whale Wars, has denied any wrongdoing.
After his release, he told AFP that his time in prison had drawn attention to Japan’s “illegal” whaling industry and was a “continuation” of his campaign.
Whaling and the consumption of whale meat have been heavily criticized by conservation groups, but Japanese officials say it is part of the country’s culture and way of life.
Denmark’s Ministry of Justice confirmed that it would not honor the Japanese extradition request, basing its decision on the “nature of the circumstances” and the fact that the incident took place 14 years ago.
His lawyer, Julie Stage, told the BBC that Mr Watson was “obviously relieved” and was “looking forward to being reunited with his wife and children”.
Since Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, the decision to extradite him was made in Copenhagen. Although Japan and Denmark have not reached an extradition treaty, the Tokyo government has appealed to Denmark to extradite him.
Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said it was “of the utmost importance” to ensure that Watson’s time in custody in Greenland would count against any possible jail time he may later face in Japan.
He added that after correspondence with the Japanese authorities, the ministry concluded that “it cannot be assumed with the necessary certainty that this will be the case.”
Mr Watson’s vessel, 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 the new Japanese whaling vessel when it docked for refueling at Nuuk on July 21.
At a preliminary sentencing hearing, Mr Watson told the court the case was “revenge for a television show that had greatly embarrassed Japan in the eyes of the world”.
He has been a controversial figure over the years, known for confrontations with whaling vessels at sea.
The campaigner is a former chief of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which he left in 2022 to set up the Captain Paul Watson Foundation.
Japan withdrew from the International Whaling Commission and resumed commercial whaling in 2019 after a 30-year hiatus, although during that time it continued whaling for what it said was research purposes.
