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Interpol takes anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson off its most-wanted list

Interpol takes anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson off its most-wanted list

Interpol said on Tuesday it was removing a most-wanted designation for Canadian anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson, who is sought by Japan over an encounter with a whaling ship and who was jailed for several months last year in Greenland.
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Watson, 74, is a former head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, whose high seas confrontations with whaling vessels have drawn support from celebrities and featured in the reality television series Whale Wars.
Japan wants his extradition over an encounter with a Japanese whaling research ship in 2001, when he was accused of obstructing the crew's official duties by ordering the captain of his ship to throw explosives at the whaling ship.
Starting in 2012, Watson had been subject to a 'red notice' of Interpol, the Lyon, France-based international police body.
The Canadian-American activist was arrested and jailed on the Japanese warrant last year in Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of and was released after five months.
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Denmark does not have an extradition treaty with Japan, where Watson's foundation says he could have faced a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, and the Danish government declined to extradite him to Japan.
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