Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson, known for his decades-long fight against Japanese whaling and arrested in Greenland in July, has asked France's president for political asylum, Sea Shepherd France said Wednesday.
Watson faces extradition to Japan, where he could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. He was detained after a Japanese request to Interpol over his confrontational tactics aimed at disrupting Japanese whaling operations in the Antarctic.
Sea Shepherd France told journalists they delivered a letter from Watson “in the last few days” to French President Emmanuel Macron, who previously expressed his support for Watson and emphasized the importance of the case to environmental advocacy and human rights.
There was no immediate comment from Macron's office Wednesday.
Watson “wrote a letter in prison, which he gave to me, and it has been presented to the president through his counselors,” said the group's president, Lamya Essemlali.
“Paul is very attached to France, and it is also the second largest marine territory in the world, which means a lot for ocean conservation. Paul is currently living in France with his family,” she added.
Watson was “down” and “isolated,” but “resilient,” Essemlali said.
Jean Tamalet, a lawyer associated with Sea Shepherd France, emphasized that the call for political asylum is largely symbolic and aimed at securing his release.
Critics of Watson's arrest in Greenland have asserted that it stemmed from long-standing political motivations tied to Japan’s whaling practices, which are banned internationally under a 1986 treaty. Japan considers the practices part of its cultural heritage.
For decades, Watson has led high-profile confrontations with whaling ships in the Southern Ocean.
The arrest occurred when Watson's ship docked in Nuuk, Greenland, for refueling on its way to intercept a Japanese whaling ship. Danish authorities are reviewing Japan’s request for his extradition.
Over a decade ago, Japan issued a Red Notice through Interpol, which is not an international arrest warrant but a request for cooperation between member states to locate and detain individuals pending extradition.
In the past, international authorities paid little attention, allowing Watson to travel freely, according to Tamalet, who added: “That has obviously changed."
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31 Comments
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sakurasuki
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
USNinJapan2
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.
TokyoLiving
What a pathetic coward, now he screams at Macron for asylum...
France asylums criminals??..
For now JAPAN AWAITS YOU !!!..
TokyoLiving
He did a crime against Japan, he must pay it in Japan..
Grow up..
ian
but he's not in France atm
Fighto!
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.
Norm
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.
Lose one of the periods and cry us a river.
Wasabi
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".
JJE
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.
ian
It's up to macron?
JJE
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.
ian
So is it up to macron?
JJE
Yes.
zones2surf
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!!
Yohan
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
USNinJapan2
JJE
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.
Alongfortheride
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.
JJE
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.
iknowall
France can do the right thing and protect him.
Zaphod
Totally understandable, as nobody can expect him to get a fair trial in Japan.
Zaphod
JJE
You do not know that. Remember how the EU treated Assange (while still in the EU)?
MontiePieThong
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.
Keepitreal
He endangered lives at sea with his violent acts now wants France to give him asylum what a joke.
wallace
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
JJE
To pretend the Japanese government doesn't ram ships and use high-powered water cannons is cute fiction.
Kazuaki Shimazaki
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.
Wasabi
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.
Yohan
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/feb/27/sea-shepherd-pirates-us-court
23 August 2016
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/10/sea-shepherd-payment-japanese-whalers-breaching-injunction
Kevin Wilson
Sounds like this modern day pirate is getting scared lol
OssanAmerica
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.
Ryder
Watson needs to spend some time in prison while he thinks about minding his own business.