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A Greenland court will decide on Monday whether to further extend the four-month-long detention of anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, pending a decision on his extradition to Japan.
The hearing will be Watson's sixth since his arrest in July in Nuuk, capital of the Danish autonomous territory.
Prosecutor Mariam Khalil told AFP that she has "requested a four-week extension to the period of pre-trial detention".
Watson's lawyer Julie Stage is meanwhile pleading for his release.
"I'm going to ask for his immediate release," she said.
The activist, who turned 74 on Monday, was detained on a 2012 Japanese arrest warrant, which accuses him of causing damage to a whaling ship in the Antarctic in 2010 and injuring a whaler.
Watson, who featured in the reality TV series "Whale Wars", founded Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF) and is known for radical tactics including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.
"It's absurd. Every time it's the same thing, we wonder why they even convene the hearing," Lamya Essemlali, President of Sea Shepherd France, told AFP.
Watson was arrested on July 21 when his ship, the John Paul DeJoria, docked to refuel in Nuuk on its way to "intercept" a new Japanese whaling factory vessel in the North Pacific, according to the CPWF.
The Danish justice ministry, which has consulted with Greenland police and the Danish prosecutor general on the case, told AFP over the weekend that it was nearing a decision on the matter.
"The Danish Ministry of Justice is currently processing the extradition request... expecting to soon make a decision," it said in a statement.
In late November, Watson's lawyers urged Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard to block the extradition.
If Denmark refuses his extradition, "there would no longer be any reason for detention and (Watson) would be released as soon as possible," Khalil explained to AFP in November.
If Denmark were to agree to Japan's extradition request, Watson's lawyers would lodge an appeal.
According to Stage, the decision should be made "within 14 days".
Tokyo accuses Watson of injuring a Japanese crew member with a stink bomb intended to disrupt the whalers' activities during a Sea Shepherd clash with the Shonan Maru 2 vessel in 2010.
Watson's lawyers insist he is innocent and say they have video footage proving the crew member was not on deck when the stink bomb was thrown. The Nuuk court has refused to view the video.
In September, Watson's lawyers contacted the U.N. special rapporteur on environmental defenders, claiming that he could be "subjected to inhumane treatment" in Japanese prisons.
The defense team has argued that the crime of which Japan accuses him does not even carry a jail sentence in Greenland, a point on which the prosecution disagrees.
In a rare public comment on the case, Japan's Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya has said that the extradition request was "an issue of law enforcement at sea rather than a whaling issue".
Watson hopes to be freed to return to France, where he had been living since July 2023 and where his two young children attend school.
He requested French citizenship in October.
Watson's legal woes have attracted support from members of the public and activists, including prominent British conservationist Jane Goodall, who has urged French President Emmanuel Macron to grant him political asylum.
A petition for his release has gathered 210,000 signatures, and some 220,000 have signed in support of his application for French citizenship.
© 2024 AFP
6 Comments
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Wasabi
Face the justice like a man
Fighto!
Denmark is, I presume, still gathering evidence to make a decision about Watson's extradition.
If Watson and his supporters are so confident in their case, that he did not use violent means, launch butyric acid at the Japanese vessel and injure a Japanese sailor, then he should be keen to get to Japan and have his day in court to prove his innocence.
I bet the Greenland prison officers cannot wait to get rid of him.
Alongfortheride
I just don't get this.. If he thinks he did nothing wrong why does he want to avoid coming to japan to face the courts!
Jay
I think your memory must've ghosn missing.
JJE
Because Japan practices a medieval form of hostage justice that is at odds with public decency in general and EU law in particular.
This is about persecution and revenge. Doubt Macron will allow Denmark to sanction this nasty torture-death sentence on a 75 year old.
Meiyouwenti
The Danish court should stop extending Watson’s detention and extradite the criminal suspect to Japan. Further procrastination will only undermine the Nordic country‘s credibility.
USNinJapan2
JJE
If so, he'd have been released already. If anything the multiple extensions of his detention indicate that even Macron knows better than to advocate for a unrepentant egotistical scofflaw vigilante.
garymalmgren
French President Emmanuel Macron to grant him political asylum.
RE : Doubt Macron will allow Denmark to sanction this nasty torture-death sentence on a 75 year old.
Ah, yes the French connection. The same country that sent special forces divers with fake passports to bomb and sink the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand and "accidentally" murdered a Belgian photographer aboard.
Then reneged on their promise for the repatriated criminals to complete their sentences in France.
That France is now the champion of a wild crusading 74 year old Greeny.
I don't think so!