Greenland Court Extends Capt. Paul Watson's Detention

A court in Greenland has extended its detention order for the anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd and current leader of the Captain Paul Watson Foundation. 

Watson was detained by Greenland police on July 21 when his vessel arrived at the port of Nuuk for a bunkering and resupply call. The sailing vessel John Paul DeJoria was under way for the Northwest Passage, bound for the North Pacific and the whale hunting grounds off Japan, where the crew hopes to intercept the new Japanese whaling ship Kangei Maru. 

Watson, 73, was arrested on a Japanese Interpol "Red" warrant dating back more than a decade. It relates to Watson's activities in 2010, when he was head of Sea Shepherd and involved with a campaign against Japan's "research" whaling operations in the Southern Ocean. That warrant was originally issued for alleged acts of "Breaking into the Vessel, Damage to Property, Forcible Obstruction of Business, and Injury," according to Interpol; Watson's legal team had believed that it was withdrawn before his arrival in Greenland. 

Given Watson's history and his prior arrest in Germany, the local court in Nuuk ruled that he posed a flight risk and ordered his detention through August 15. That detention was later extended through October 2, and has now been extended through October 23. 

#FreePaulWatson pic.twitter.com/Y17zd9xyOD

— Captain Paul Watson Foundation ??????????? (@CaptPaulWatson) October 2, 2024

Japan has requested Watson's extradition, but his lawyers assert that Japanese courts are unlikely to give him a fair trial, and that Denmark's justice ministry should refuse the request. They are also appealing the lower court's detention order to Denmark's Supreme Court.

"We want the Danish [justice] minister to make a decision. At the moment they're just letting him rot in prison, it's really a problem," head of Sea Shepherd France Lamya Essemlali told AFP.