The Japanese government voiced dismay yesterday over the release of anti-whaling activist Paul Watson after Danish authorities refused Tokyo’s extradition request.
“It is regrettable that the Denmark government did not accept Japan’s request of passing him over and [the government] has conveyed this to the Danish side,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said.
Watson had been held in Greenland since July on a 2012 Japanese warrant accusing him of causing damage to a whaling ship and injuring a whaler in 2010.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Watson, who featured in the reality TV series Whale Wars, founded Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, and is known for radical tactics including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.
Japan accuses Watson of injuring a Japanese crew member with a stink bomb intended to disrupt the whalers’ activities during a Sea Shepherd clash with the Shonan Maru 2 whaling vessel.
However, the Japanese government has been tight-lipped throughout.
In a rare public comment on the case, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya said that the extradition request was “an issue of law enforcement at sea rather than a whaling issue.”
Watson’s legal woes have attracted support from the public and activists, including prominent British conservationist Jane Goodall, who has urged French President Emmanuel Macron to grant him political asylum.
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