COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s justice ministry said on Thursday it had received a Japanese request to extradite anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who was detained in Greenland last month on an international arrest warrant.
Watson, the 73-year-old American-Canadian founder of the activist organization Sea Shepherd, was arrested on July 21 in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, over an altercation with Japanese whaling ships in 2010.
“Yesterday, the Ministry of Justice received a formal request from the Japanese authorities for the extradition of Paul Watson,” the Danish Ministry of Justice said in an email to AFP.
The ministry said it would hand the case over to Greenland police “unless, on the current basis, the ministry finds grounds to reject the extradition request in advance”.
If the case is referred to Greenland police, they will investigate “whether grounds for extradition exist,” including whether it complies with Greenland’s extradition law, the Justice Department said.
However, the final decision on Watson’s extradition will be made by the Danish Ministry of Justice, it added.
According to the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF), the vessel was on its way to “intercept” a new Japanese whaling factory vessel in the North Pacific.
Along with Iceland and Norway, Japan is one of only three countries in the world that allow commercial whaling.
