Tokyo:
The Japanese government expressed its dismay on Wednesday over the release of anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, after Danish authorities rejected Tokyo's extradition request.
Greenland arrested Sea Shepherd's founder in July for alleged damage and injuries caused by the group's high-seas battles to stop “scientific” whaling in Japan in the 2000s and 2010s.
“It is regrettable that the Danish government did not accept Japan's request to hand him over and (the government) passed this on to the Danish side,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said.
“Suspect Paul Watson is wanted internationally as an accomplice in the February 2010 incident in which activists from the anti-whaling organization Sea Shepherd injured members of Japanese whaling vessels and damaged property, after which an arrest warrant was issued,” Hayashi said.
“The Japanese government will continue to address this appropriately, based on the law and evidence,” he told reporters at a regular briefing.
'Whale Wars'
Authorities in Greenland – a Danish autonomous region – released the 74-year-old Canadian-American on Tuesday after Copenhagen rejected Tokyo's extradition request.
Watson starred in the reality TV series “Whale Wars” and founded Sea Shepherd and, after being kicked out, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF).
He was adept at gaining publicity and gained notoriety for “direct action” tactics such as ramming ships and using acoustic weapons, water cannons and stink bombs.
In the 2000s and 2010s, Sea Shepherd played a rough game of cat and mouse with Japanese ships as they attempted to slaughter hundreds of whales each year for “scientific purposes.”
Former harpooner Shintaro Takeda described the dangers activists pose to whalers in an interview in September.
“(They) tried to wrap ropes around our propeller, and all kinds of things, which escalated year after year,” he said, adding that “no one died, but I think it was close.”
Japan eventually halted hunting in Antarctic waters and the North Pacific Ocean and has only caught whales in its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone since 2019.
The catch list was limited to sei whales, minke whales and Bryde's whales, but this year fin whales, the second largest animal in the world, were added, with the first killed on August 1.
In May, Japan launched a new “mother ship,” the Kangei Maru, to slaughter and store the meat of the hundreds of whales the fleet catches each year.
The CPWF says its ship, the John Paul DeJoria, was en route to intercept the Kangei Maru when Watson was taken by Danish police at the dock in Nuuk.
Activists believe Japan wants to restart whaling in the Southern Ocean by building the new ship, but the company that operates the ship has denied this.
'Inhuman treatment'
Watson's arrest received widespread public support, with a petition gaining more than 200,000 signatures.
Supporters included actress and activist Brigitte Bardot and prominent British conservationist Jane Goodall, who urged French President Emmanuel Macron to grant him political asylum.
Macron urged Danish authorities not to extradite the campaigner, who had applied for French nationality.
Whaling advocates, however, accuse their critics of double standards, given the methods used to produce much of the millions of tons of meat from other animals consumed each year.
In September, Watson's lawyers contacted the UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders claiming he “could be subjected to inhumane treatment” in Japanese prisons.
“My arrest has drawn international attention to Japan's ongoing illegal whaling activities and their intention to return to the Southern Ocean… So in effect these five months have been an extension of the campaign,” Watson told AFP on Tuesday after his arrest . edition.
Jean Tamalet, one of his lawyers, told AFP that “the fight is not over yet”.
“We will now have to challenge the red alert and the Japanese arrest warrant to ensure that Captain Paul Watson can once again travel the world in complete peace of mind and never experience a similar episode again,” Tamalet said.
The Japanese government has remained tight-lipped during Watson's incarceration.
In a rare public comment on the case, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said in October that the extradition request was “a matter of maritime law enforcement and not a matter of whaling.”
Hideki Tokoro, president of Japan's top whaling company Kyodo Senpaku, said Wednesday that the Japanese government should continue to push to bring Watson to justice.
“They crashed into our ships… What they are doing is just a business to collect donations,” Tokoro told AFP.
(This story has not been edited by Our staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
