Paul Watson to be freed as Denmark will not extradite activist, says lawyer

Tuesday 17 December 2024

An attendee holds placard during a demonstration in support of 73-year-old US-Canadian anti-whaling activist of NGO Sea Sherpherd Paul Watson on the "Miroir d'Eau" water feature (Reflecting Water) in Bordeaux, southwestern France on November 16, 2024, three days after Groenland extended his detention for three more weeks, pending a decision on his possible extradition to Japan. Watson was detained in Nuuk in July 2024, 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. Thibaud MORITZ / AFP

Denmark announced on Tuesday it will not extradite environmental activist Paul Watson to Japan, and he will be released, his lawyer told AFP.

“He is free. The Ministry of Justice has just informed us that it rejected the extradition request,” said his lawyer Julie Stage to AFP.

Watson will be able to leave the prison in Nuuk, Greenland, where he has been held on remand for nearly five months.