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 large 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.
Watson’s foundation in a statement on Monday said 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 added.
Japanese police were not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters.
Denmark’s justice ministry will decide whether there are grounds to extradite him to Japan, Greenland’s police said.
The Danish ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Only Iceland, Norway and Japan have conducted commercial whaling in recent years, according to the International Whaling Commission’s catch list.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom and Louise Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik and Christina Fincher)
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