COPENHAGEN: American-Canadian anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, arrested in July in Greenland, will face a choose on Thursday (Aug 15) who will rule on his continued detention as a doable extradition requested by Japan looms.
The district court docket in Nuuk – the capital of the autonomous Danish territory – will rule on whether or not there may be trigger to increase his detention for as much as one other 4 weeks.
“The listening to on Aug 15, 2024 will subsequently not take care of the query of whether or not or to not extradite him,” police stated in a press release.
The choice on whether or not he will likely be extradited to Japan, which finally will likely be as much as the Danish Ministry of Justice, will likely be taken independently.
Nonetheless, it should nonetheless be mentioned on the listening to, his lawyer Jonas Christoffersen advised a press convention on Monday.
“As a place to begin, you’d say that an individual must be detained in the course of the extradition case, as a result of in any other case there may very well be a threat that the particular person would go away,” Christoffersen stated.
Watson, who featured within the actuality TV sequence Whale Wars, based Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Basis (CPWF), and is understood for radical ways together with confrontations with whaling ships at sea.
The 73-year-old campaigner was arrested on Jul 21 when the ship John Paul DeJoria docked in Nuuk to refuel.
“RED NOTICE”
The vessel was on its technique to “intercept” a new Japanese whaling factory vessel within the North Pacific, in accordance with the CPWF.
Watson was arrested on the idea of a 2012 Interpol “Pink Discover” after Japan accused him of inflicting injury to one among its whaling ships within the Antarctic two years earlier and inflicting damage.
Solely Japan, Iceland and Norway enable business whaling.
Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd’s French department, has advised AFP that Watson believes his arrest to be political, with Japan wanting him as a result of he’s a “political image”.
Essemlali defined Monday that the arrest warrant had been made confidential and was not listed on Interpol’s web site, and Watson would in any other case not have stopped in Nuuk.
“All this was orchestrated. In spite of everything, 14 federal cops and a Danish public prosecutor have been placed on a direct aircraft to Greenland to arrest Paul.”
Japan requested Danish authorities to extradite him on the finish of July.
In Japan, Watson faces a cost of inflicting damage, which may carry as much as 15 years in jail or a effective of as much as ¥500,000 (US$3,300).
He additionally faces a cost of forcible obstruction of enterprise, which carries a penalty of as much as three years in jail or a effective of as much as ¥500,000.
“PRESUMPTION OF GUILT”
On the upcoming listening to in Nuuk, Watson’s legal professionals intend to argue the detention he has already been subjected to shouldn’t be proportional to the offence of which he’s suspected.
“We are going to argue that the three weeks which have handed is greater than sufficient and you may’t lengthen it additional than that,” Christoffersen stated.
With Watson’s historical past of activism, Essemlali stated that Japan wouldn’t be lenient, and given his age he would probably spend the remainder of his life incarcerated.
“We completely wish to keep away from his extradition to Japan, as a result of we all know that if he’s extradited to Japan, he will not get out alive”, Essemlali stated.
Francois Zimeray, one other one among Watson’s legal professionals, additionally blasted the Japanese authorized system on Monday.
“In Japan, there’s a presumption of guilt and the prosecutors are proud to announce that they’ve a 99.6 % conviction fee,” Zimeray stated.
Watson’s arrest has sparked a sequence of protests calling for his launch.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s workplace has requested Denmark to not extradite the activist, who has lived in France for the previous 12 months.
