Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson has been arrested in Greenland underneath a global warrant issued by Japan, authorities and his basis stated.
Mr Watson, star of the truth TV present Whale Wars, was arrested when his ship docked in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, a police assertion stated.
The arrest is believed to be associated to an Interpol Pink Discover issued for Mr Watson’s earlier anti-whaling interventions within the Antarctic area, the Captain Paul Watson Basis stated.
The 73-year-old might be introduced earlier than a district court docket with a request to detain him pending a choice on his potential extradition to Japan, police stated.
Footage posted by his foundation on X confirmed officers handcuffing Mr Watson on the John Paul DeJoria ship, placing him inside a police van and driving him away.
His basis stated it was “fully shocked, because the Pink Discover had disappeared a couple of months in the past”.
“We have been stunned as a result of it may imply that it had been erased or made confidential. We perceive now that Japan made it confidential to lure Paul right into a false sense of safety,” Locky MacLean, ship operation’s director for the inspiration, stated in a press release.
“We implore the Danish authorities to launch Captain Watson and never entertain this politically-motivated request.”
Greenland is an autonomous Danish dependent territory with self-government and its personal parliament.
A Pink Discover was issued towards Mr Watson in 2012, with Interpol stating he was wished by Japan on expenses of inflicting harm and damage in two incidents within the Antarctic Ocean in 2010 towards a Japanese whaling ship.
Japan’s authorities has made no remark however a spokeswoman for the Japanese coastguard advised the AFP information company it was conscious of the arrest.
Mr Watson’s basis stated he was on his option to “intercepting Japan’s newly-built manufacturing facility ship, the Kangei Maru, within the North Pacific”.
The ship, which set off from Japan in Could, butchers whales caught and killed by smaller vessels.
Activists focused the Kangei Maru’s predecessor earlier than 2019, when Japan hunted whales within the Antarctic and North Pacific for what it stated have been “scientific” functions.
Japan left the Worldwide Whaling Fee in 2019 and now solely conducts business whaling in its personal waters, and on what it calls a sustainable scale.
Nevertheless, Mr Watson’s basis believes Japan is planning to renew high-seas whaling within the Southern Ocean and North Pacific as early as subsequent 12 months.
In a press release, the group stated the “reactivation” of the Pink Discover towards Mr Watson “is politically motivated and coincides with the launch of a newly-built manufacturing facility whale processing vessel”.
Mr Watson has gained supporters from the world over as a consequence of his many years of activism, however has additionally acquired criticism and confronted authorized points as a consequence of his aggressive ways.
A few of that criticism has come from Greenpeace, which Mr Watson claims he was a co-founder of regardless of the group denying this.
