Activist Paul Watson asks France for political asylum to avoid possible extradition to Japan

Activist Paul Watson asks France for political asylum to avoid possible extradition to Japan

Keep the fight to avoid Japan hostage justice system.

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BA%BA%E8%B3%AA%E5%8F%B8%E6%B3%95

More ridiculous grandstanding from this criminal manchild egomaniac. France deserves him if they decide to accept him as a political refugee. If he is released, I do hope the Red Notice remains since it would have merely been circumvented and not enforced to extradition and Watson will still be a wanted individual outside of France/EU.

What a pathetic coward, now he screams at Macron for asylum...

France asylums criminals??..

For now JAPAN AWAITS YOU !!!..

Keep the fight to avoid Japan hostage justice system.

He did a crime against Japan, he must pay it in Japan..

Grow up..

but he's not in France atm

Violent Watson is clearly getting desperate now, bizarrely begging the French President to give him asylum. It's not going to work : Denmark has a great relationship with Japan and will do the right thing and extradite him to face the charges.

Man up, Watson - have your day in court if you clearly believe you have done nothing wrong.

He did a crime against Japan, he must pay it in Japan..

Anybody and everybody knows that justice will not be served in Japan. He’s already been judged guilty, so if he ever gets here it’s the end of his ever seeing sunshine again.

Grow up..

Lose one of the periods and cry us a river.

He must face justice for what he did and he can explain his action. Not doing this is just showing his really personality. He does not care about his "cause".

EU will not extradite to hostage justice Japan and allow a politicized persecution.

Macron won't allow it, especially since that some of his friends are now Watson's friends there. Article even mentions his direct interventions in the case.

JJE

Today 08:34 am JST

EU will not extradite to hostage justice Japan and allow a politicized persecution.

> Macron won't allow it,

It's up to macron?

This is how the EU works; Berlin controls the purse strings and Paris the foreign policy.

If you think France is going to let Denmark upstage them on EU foreign policy, then one doesn't fundamentally understand how the EU works (you know, the institution that people have been praising relentlessly on other issues). This is called centralization and but another manifestation of how it works in practice.

JJE

Today 08:47 am JST

This is how the EU works; Berlin controls the purse strings and Paris the foreign policy.

> If you think France is going to let Denmark upstage them on EU foreign policy, then one doesn't fundamentally understand how the EU works (you know, the institution that people have been praising relentlessly on other issues). This is called centralization and but another manifestation of how it works in practice.

So is it up to macron?

Yes.

If there was ever a case that demanded political asylum, this was it!

Japan pillaged the southern oceans of whales.

THEY are the pillagers!!

For them to play the victim is an affront to humanity and to law!!

ianToday 08:42 am JST

JJE

Today 08:34 am JST

EU will not extradite to hostage justice Japan and allow a politicized persecution.

Macron won't allow it,

It's up to macron?

No, it's not up to Macron of course, but up to Denmark's Justice Ministry to decide.

Interesting to read that a man who is holding US and Canadian citizenship is arrested in Denmark (Greenland) and asking France for asylum because of an extradition request from Japan.

We will see, it's now up to Denmark to decide what to do.

He was arrested on July 21, 2024 and today is 17th October and he is still in a Greenland jail.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241003/p2g/00m/0in/011000c

October 3, 2024

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- A court in Greenland ruled Wednesday that anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson must remain in detention until Oct. 23 while Denmark's Justice Ministry decides whether to approve his extradition to Japan.

JJE

Macron won't allow it, especially since that some of his friends are now Watson's friends there.

Good on you. It was about time you owned that France's intervention in this case would be an act of nepotism, not justice, or application of law.

If he thinks he did nothing wrong why is he wanting to avoid facing the courts in Japan? Lets him come and explain why he is innocent.

Welcome to the centralization that characterizes the wider EU. The next part is where one gets a crash course the implications in countries giving their sovereignty to a centralized bureaucracy beholden to certain interests.

France can do the right thing and protect him.

Activist Paul Watson asks France for political asylum to avoid possible extradition to Japan

Totally understandable, as nobody can expect him to get a fair trial in Japan.

JJE

EU will not extradite to hostage justice Japan and allow a politicized persecution.

You do not know that. Remember how the EU treated Assange (while still in the EU)?

This brave eco hero of the sea should be given asylum but more than that Japan should be made to pay for its blatant abuse of the system for political gain and it is that and more. He would not get a fair trial in Japan but so what, he shouldn't even be on trial at all. It's Japan whaling that is the crime and this man and his associates are amongst the few with the guts to stand up to what is essentially a renegade nation when it comes to the matter of whaling.

He endangered lives at sea with his violent acts now wants France to give him asylum what a joke.

The Japanese whaling trawlers also rammed Sea Shepherd boats. Sea Shepherd’s Ady Gil.

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2010/01/07/2003462815

 Sea Shepherd says two harpoon ships crossed the bow of Bob Barker at close range while dragging steel cables.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/24/japanese-whaling-fleet-attacked-sea-shepherd-ship-says-activist-group

Boat collision footage: Sea Shepherd ship rammed by Japanese whaling vessel

https://youtu.be/-I2bYRz5aaQ?si=S09Z_yrl_An30C_q

To pretend the Japanese government doesn't ram ships and use high-powered water cannons is cute fiction.

Japan pillaged the southern oceans of whales.

If anything, the base problem there is the politicization of the moratorium, which Japan was strong armed to accede to in the first place. The whole "scientific whaling" thing was a compromise that prevents an open breach between Japan and the IWC - until Australia ruined the game.

This brave eco hero of the sea

Your "brave" "hero" has attach a Japanese ship and must now face justice. And your "hero" do not have the gut to face the Japanese justice.

You better find a new "hero" my friend.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/27/sea-shepherd-pirates-us-court

23 August 2016

A US court has declared the conservation group Sea Shepherd to be "pirates" and ordered it to stop its aggressive actions against Japanese whalers.

The ruling was issued on Wednesday by chief judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th US circuit court of appeals.

In his 18-page opinion, he wrote: "You don't need a peg leg or an eye patch. When you ram ships; hurl containers of acid; drag metal-reinforced ropes in the water to damage propellers and rudders; launch smoke bombs and flares with hooks; and point high-powered lasers at other ships, you are, without a doubt, a pirate, no matter how high-minded you believe your purpose to be."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/10/sea-shepherd-payment-japanese-whalers-breaching-injunction

A radical environmental group has agreed to pay $2.55m (£1.6m) to Japanese whalers for breaching a US court injunction to stay clear of their vessels in the Antarctic Ocean.

The United States-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and former senior officials of the group last week agreed to pay the sum to resolve civil contempt charges against them in the US ninth circuit court of appeals.

The payment will go to the Institute of Cetacean Research and Kyodo Senpaku, the two main bodies behind Japan’s “research” whaling programme.

The injunction prohibited Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson and any person acting with them from physically attacking the vessels operated by the Japanese entities in the Southern Ocean or acting in a manner to endanger their navigation.

The preliminary injunction, issued in late 2012, also bans the defendants from coming within 457 metres of the vessels.

But Sea Shepherd boats were involved in high seas confrontations with the whalers in early 2013.

Sounds like this modern day pirate is getting scared lol

He could have gotten away with his past criminal acts by just retiring. If he thinks he's innocent of the charges let him face the Court in Japan. I'm sure his fan club will finance his legal bills.

Watson needs to spend some time in prison while he thinks about minding his own business.

While I do not condone the actions of this man, he should not be extradited to Japan, which has no proper rule of law, no proper justice system, and takes hostages. I hope that France accepts him. Incidentally, any country which receives an arrest warrant from Japan should throw it straight into the waste paper basket until Japan drastically overhauls it's so-called legal system.

It’s a no-win situation for Japan. It uses scientific research as justification for a deviant cultural practice. Japan stopped feeding whale meat to it’s school children because of high mercury content. It is already looked down by environmentalists for discharging treated nuclear waste water that neighboring countries contend that it contaminates seafood products. But the underlying reason is that Japanese politicians do not want to lose the backing of the whaling industry. It is time for Japan to give it up and join the world community. It’s the right thing to do.

@Alan HarrisonToday  01:05 am JST

Do you wish to say that Japanese do not deserve legal protection or justice against the actions of foreigners, because of your personal differences with their legal system?

I really would like to ask those who defend this man ... what defenses do you believe he can meaningfully put up if there was a so-called "fair trial"?

Kazuaki Shimazaki

First of all he will be held for 23 days without a charge, with no access to a lawyer while being relentlessly interrogated. He will be indicted and refused bail. He will then be held for a great length of time and probably continue to be interrogated and a confession will be demanded. He will be held hostage to exhorbuant compensation money. Does a country which takes hostages deserve any protection?