Sea Shepherd founder and anti-whaling activist Paul Watson has been arrested in Greenland and faces potential extradition to Japan. The charges against Watson stem from incidents in the Southern Ocean in February 2010, where he was accused of being an accomplice to an assault and ship trespass related to the boarding of the Japanese vessel Shonan Maru No 2 by Pete Bethune.
Watson, who left Sea Shepherd in 2022 due to disputes over direct action, was arrested while en route to intercept a Japanese whaling vessel. Japan withdrew from the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling in 2019 and resumed commercial whaling, keeping the issue of whaling alive despite past legal battles.
The basis for the charges against Watson lies in two international treaties that provide Japan with legal grounds for his arrest. Japan may argue that the boarding of the Shonan Maru No 2 was an act of piracy or a violation of maritime navigation safety laws, leading to the request for extradition from Denmark, where Greenland is an autonomous territory. Extradition is a complex legal and political process that involves considerations of domestic laws and international agreements.
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