Anti-whaling campaigner arrested in Greenland and police say he could also be extradited to Japan

BERLIN (AP) — Greenland police mentioned they arrested a veteran environmental activist and anti-whaling campaigner on Sunday on a global arrest warrant issued by way of Japan.Paul Watson was once arrested when his send docked in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, a police remark mentioned. He’s going to be introduced prior to a district courtroom with a request to detain him pending a choice on his imaginable extradition to Japan, the remark mentioned.The Captain Paul Watson Basis mentioned that greater than a dozen police boarded the vessel and led Watson away in handcuffs when it stopped to refuel. The root mentioned the send, along side 25 volunteer staff participants, was once en path to the North Pacific on a venture to intercept a brand new Eastern whaling send.“The arrest is thought to be associated with a former Purple Realize issued for Captain Watson’s earlier anti-whaling interventions within the Antarctic area,” the root mentioned in an emailed remark.

“We implore the Danish govt to free up Captain Watson and now not entertain this politically-motivated request,” Locky MacLean, a basis director, mentioned within the remark.Greenland is an independent territory of Denmark.

Watson, a 73-year-old Canadian-American citizen, is a former head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society whose direct motion techniques, together with high-seas confrontations with whaling vessels, has drawn make stronger from A-list celebrities and featured within the fact tv sequence “Whale Wars.”

Alternatively, it has additionally introduced him into disagreement with government. He was once detained in Germany in 2012 on a Costa Rican extradition warrant, however skipped bail after finding out that he was once additionally hunted for extradition by way of Japan, which has accused him of endangering whalers’ lives all through operations within the Antarctic Ocean. He has since lived in nations together with France and the USA.Watson, who left Sea Shepherd in 2022 to determine his personal group, was once additionally a number one member of Greenpeace, however left in 1977 amid disagreements over his competitive techniques.

In keeping with his basis, Watson’s present send, the M/Y John Paul DeJoria, was once because of sail during the Northwest Passage to the North Pacific to confront a newly constructed Eastern manufacturing facility whaling send, “a murderous enemy devoid of compassion and empathy hell bent on destroying probably the most clever self-aware sentient beings within the sea.”