STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -A U.S.-Canadian anti-whaling activist has been detained in Greenland and faces possible extradition to Japan which has issued an international warrant for his arrest, the Arctic island’s police said in a statement.
Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd activist group and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, was apprehended on Sunday when his ship docked at the port of Nuuk, police in the Danish autonomous territory added.
Japan, which says eating whale meat is part of its culture, resumed commercial whaling in 2019 and has since modernised its fleet and expanded its catch list, drawing condemnation from conservationists who fear for the fate of the ocean mammals.
“The Japanese authorities have issued an international arrest warrant for Paul Watson, which is the reason why the Greenland Police were ready to arrest him on arrival in Nuuk,” the island’s law enforcement agency said in a statement.
Denmark’s justice ministry, citing Interpol, said Japan sought Watson on charges of breaking into a Japanese vessel in the Antarctic Ocean in 2010, obstructing its business and causing injury as well as property damage.
The Danish ministry, which will decide whether there are grounds to extradite Watson for prosecution, is awaiting a formal request from Japanese authorities, it added.
Watson’s foundation said on Monday it believed the extradition request was linked to his past actions to block Japanese whaling.
“We implore the Danish government to release Captain Watson and not entertain this politically motivated request,” it said in a statement.
Watson’s foundation on Tuesday did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
Any request for extradition must be submitted within 30 days of the arrest, the Danish justice ministry said.
Japanese police were not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom and Louise Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik and Christina Fincher)
