French and European parliamentarians rally against arrest of Sea Shepherd founder

3 months ago 10

Sixty-eight members of the French and European parliaments sent a letter to the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Wednesday (24 July) calling for the release of Paul Watson, the founder of the marine conservation NGO Sea Shepherd.

Canadian-American Watson was arrested in Greenland last Sunday (21 July) on the basis of an international arrest warrant known as a ‘red notice’. The warrant was issued by the international policing organisation Interpol in 2010 for alleged anti-whaling activities.

“This shameful red notice [has been] used as a political tool by Japan to hunt down and punish Paul Watson for opposing illegal whaling in the Antarctic,” Lamya Essemlali, president and founder of Sea Shepherd France, said in a press release published on Sunday.

Watson was arrested when he was sailing to the North Pacific to intercept a Japanese whaling ship, the Kangei Maru.

Although Japan suspended whaling in the Antarctic in 2016, Sea Shepard believes the country wants to resume this activity in the Southern Ocean and North Pacific as early as 2025.

In an open letter, MEPs such as Manon Aubry (France, The Left), Lena Schilling (Austria, greens), and Thomas Pellerin-Carlin (France, socialists) wrote that “this arrest is part of a global context of intensified repression of environmental activists, which we, as parliamentarians, observe and strongly deplore in our respective countries”.

Watson has been detained until 15 August. It is not yet known whether Denmark will permit his extradition to Japan.

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Zoran Radosavljevic]