Verdict reached: Environmentalist Paul Watson will not be extradited to Japan
By Steffen Trumpf
Nuuk (Greenland) - The well-known anti-whaling and environmental activist Paul Watson (74) will not be extradited to the whaling nation of Japan after months in custody on Greenland. This was decided by the Danish Ministry of Justice.
The 74-year-old can now travel to his family in France , a lawyer for the activist, Julie Stage, told the news agency Ritzau.
According to the Greenland police , Watson was released this morning (local time) following the ministry's decision.
This brings to an end several months of wrangling over Watson's extradition shortly before Christmas .
The Canadian-American citizen was arrested in July on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by Japan in the Greenlandic capital Nuuk after he had called at the port there on the ship "John Paul DeJoria".
Paul Watson should be extradited over 2010 incident
Greenland is largely autonomous, but is officially part of the Kingdom of Denmark. The final decision on extradition therefore lay with the Danish Ministry of Justice .
Watson is one of the best-known whale conservationists. In view of his confrontational methods in protecting marine mammals, some environmentalists regard him as a hero, while others consider him too radical.
Following an incident involving a whaling ship in the Antarctic in 2010, the Japanese authorities issued the aforementioned arrest warrant against him, accusing him of damaging the ship and preventing the whalers from doing their work.