Latest news with #SeaShepherd
Washington Post
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Interpol takes U.S.-Canadian anti-whaling ‘eco-pirate' off most-wanted list
Interpol has removed an international alert for a U.S.-Canadian anti-whaling activist sought by Japan for more than a decade. In an emailed statement Wednesday, Interpol confirmed the lifting of the 'red notice' against Paul Watson, who is 74 and a former head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Watson, who has been an active and outspoken anti-whaling activist for decades, was a founder of Greenpeace but was expelled eight years later for what it called his violent actions (Watson said he took a club from a man attacking baby seals). He went on to establish the organization that would become the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which, in the 1970s and 1980s, used tactics included sinking several ships.
Japan Times
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
Interpol removes anti-whaling activist Paul Watson from wanted list
The International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, has decided to remove Paul Watson, founder of anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd, from its Red Notice wanted list, sources said Tuesday. Interpol based its decision on new developments, including Denmark's refusal to extradite Watson, 74, to Japan. It has notified all member countries of the decision. Watson was placed on the international wanted list after the Japan Coast Guard obtained an arrest warrant for him for allegedly interfering with Japan's research whaling in the Antarctic Ocean in 2010. In July last year, he was detained in the Danish territory of Greenland, but local authorities freed him in December. After his release, Interpol's Commission for the Control of Files, which oversees the organization's handling of personal information, suspended Watson from the wanted list at his request. This was followed by the decision to remove him from the list. Interpol emphasized that the decision is not related to the substance of Japan's allegations against Watson. Watson wrote on social media that the decision would end Japan's "politically motivated" persecution.
Al Jazeera
17 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Interpol takes whaling activist, Sea Shepherd founder off wanted list
Global police organisation Interpol said it has removed its most-wanted designation for the anti-whaling activist and founder of the Sea Shepherd conservation group, Paul Watson, who is wanted in Japan over an encounter with a whaling ship in 2010. Interpol had issued a 'red notice', at Japan's request, for the arrest of the Canadian-American Watson, 74, who is known for his daring tactics, including disrupting and confronting whaling ships on the high seas. Interpol has now decided that the notice was 'disproportionate', Watson's Paris-based lawyer William Julie said on Tuesday. An Interpol red notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending legal action, based on a warrant from the judicial authorities in the requesting country, in this case, Japan. In a post on social media by the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, the activist was quoted saying: 'Finally I am free.' 'The Japanese whalers have been after me for 14 years ever since I was first detained in Frankfurt, Germany in May 2012,' Watson said. 'It has been an incredible pursuit by a very powerful nation using unlimited resources but finally I am free.' 🚨INTERPOL RED NOTICE CANCELLED!! The Japanese whalers have been after me for 14 years ever since I was first detained in Frankfurt, Germany in May 2012. It has been an incredible pursuit by a very powerful nation using unlimited resources but finally I am free — Captain Paul Watson Foundation 🐋🏴☠️ (@CaptPaulWatson) July 22, 2025 A spokesperson for Interpol confirmed to the AFP news agency that the organisation's Commission for the Control of Interpol's Files (CCF) had deleted the arrest notice for Watson. 'The CCF decision was made in light of new facts, including the refusal by the Kingdom of Denmark to extradite Mr Watson. This is in line with normal procedures,' the spokesperson said. Watson was arrested and detained in Greenland in July 2024, on a more than decade-old Japanese arrest warrant, which accused him of causing damage to a whaling ship and injuring a whaler. He was released in December after Denmark refused the Japanese extradition request over the 2010 incident. Watson left Denmark on December 20, and returned to France, where his children attend school. In a statement, Watson's lawyer said that the CCF considered that Interpol's red notice 'did not meet Interpol's standards, citing the disproportionate nature of the charges… the considerable passage of time since the alleged facts, Denmark's refusal to extradite him, and the fact that several other countries declined to act on Japan's arrest or extradition requests'. Lamya Essemlali, the president of Sea Shepherd France, hailed the 'good news that this notice was finally cancelled', but noted that Watson could still be arrested and sent to Japan for prosecution. 'It does not give Paul Watson his freedom of movement because the Japanese arrest warrant is sufficient for a country to order his arrest,' she said.
South China Morning Post
20 hours ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
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. Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Interpol lifts red notice for anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson
Global police organisation Interpol has lifted a red wanted notice requesting the arrest of anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, with the campaigner saying Tuesday he was finally free of the Japanese whalers' "vendetta." "Interpol has officially and permanently dismissed the Red Notice against me," Watson said in a statement, adding the charges against him were "politically motivated." Interpol had issued the notice against Watson, known for radical tactics including confrontations with whaling ships at sea, at the request of Japan, but has now decided the measure was "disproportionate", his lawyer William Julie said in a separate statement. "The Japanese whalers have been after me for 14 years ever since I was first detained in Frankfurt, Germany in May 2012," Watson said in the statement published by his ocean conservation charity, The Captain Paul Watson Foundation. "It has been an incredible pursuit by a very powerful nation using unlimited resources but finally I am free of their vendetta and their relentless persecution," said Watson, who is also the founder of the Sea Shepherd direct action group. A spokesperson for Interpol confirmed to AFP that the Commission for the Control of Interpol's Files (CCF) had deleted the red notice, which is a request to police worldwide to arrest a suspect. Watson, a 74-year-old Canadian-American, was arrested and detained in Greenland in July, 2024 on a 2012 Japanese warrant, which accused him of causing damage to a whaling ship and injuring a whaler. He was released in December after Denmark refused the Japanese extradition request over the 2010 clash with whalers. On December 20, he returned to France, where his children attend school, following a high-profile campaign in his support. - Japanese arrest warrant - "The decision to delete Mr Watson's red notice was made by the CCF -- an independent body tasked to ensure that the processing of personal data by Interpol is in compliance with its constitution and rules," the Interpol spokesperson said. "This is not a judgement on the merits of the case, or the events that occurred in 2010, but a decision based on Interpol's rules on the processing of data," the spokesperson added. "The CCF decision was made in light of new facts, including the refusal by the Kingdom of Denmark to extradite Mr Watson. This is in line with normal procedures." In a statement, Julie said the CCF considered that the red notice "did not meet Interpol's standards, citing the disproportionate nature of the charges, Mr Watson's supposed only indirect involvement (which is contested), the considerable passage of time since the alleged facts, Denmark's refusal to extradite him, and the fact that several other countries declined to act on Japan's arrest or extradition requests." He also said that the Commission pointed to the existence of "political elements" around the case, which gave it an "importance beyond its intrinsic criminal characteristics or pure law-enforcement interest." Sea Shepherd France praised the decision as "a moral and symbolic victory" but warned that it did not yet restore Watson's freedom of movement. "The Japanese arrest warrant remains active, and any country can still choose to execute it," the group said on X. gd-mla-as/gv
