Greenpeace co-founder faces extradition and 15-year prison sentence in Japan

Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd, co-founder of Greenpeace, was arrested on an international warrant in Greenland

Founder of the US-based environmental group Sea Shepherd, Paul Watson, could face up to 15 years in prison in Japan after Japan's Ministry of Justice announced that penalties for Watson’s charges range from up to three years in prison or a fine of 100,000 yen (£503.10) for vessel trespassing to up to 15 years in prison or a fine of 500,000 yen (£2,515.50) for assault.

A ministry spokesperson clarified that these punishments are general guidelines and could apply to both principals and accomplices.

Watson was arrested earlier this month in Greenland on an international warrant. Watson, who co-founded Greenpeace, is charged with being an accomplice to assault and ship trespass, as stated by the Japan Coast Guard.

These charges are linked to an alleged incident involving the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society boarding the Japanese whaling ship Shonan Maru 2 in the Southern Ocean in February 2010.

The Kangei Maru, a new whaling mother ship, has raised speculation that Japan might be planning to resume whaling activities in the Southern Ocean.

Lamya Essemlali, head of the French branch of Sea Shepherd, visited Watson in custody in Nuuk, Greenland, and reported that he was “doing well” and had “no regrets.”

The incident traces back to when activist Peter Bethune, then a member of Sea Shepherd, allegedly boarded the Shonan Maru from a jetski, attempting to detain its captain after the group’s speedboat was destroyed in a collision with the Japanese vessel. Bethune was captured by the whalers and later arrested in Tokyo for illegal boarding, receiving a two-year suspended sentence.

In 2010, a warrant was issued to arrest Watson as an accomplice of Bethune, followed by an Interpol warrant in 2012, which remains active, according to a Japan Coast Guard spokesperson. The confrontation between Sea Shepherd protesters and whalers led to Japan’s whaling fleet returning home with only half its planned catch.

Despite the 1986 International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling, Japan was permitted to hunt nearly 1,000 whales annually for "scientific research." In 2019, Japan withdrew from the IWC, resumed commercial whaling, and launched a new whaling mothership, the 9,300-ton, $47 million Kangei Maru. The ship's owner, Kyodo Senpaku, denied rumors of its potential voyage to the Southern Ocean, stating it would focus on waters around Japan.

Watson, known for his confrontational protests against whaling, was apprehended in Nuuk while en route to intercept the Kangei Maru in the northwest Pacific, according to the Captain Paul Watson Foundation.

The foundation claimed the Interpol red notice against him had been removed months ago, but the Japan Coast Guard disputed this claim.

Watson will remain detained in Nuuk until August 15, as Denmark considers his extradition to Japan.

He was denied bail due to being considered a flight risk. French President Emmanuel Macron’s office has requested that Danish authorities not extradite Watson, who has resided in France for the past year, according to Agence France-Presse.

A French online petition urging Macron to secure Watson’s release has gained nearly 670,000 signatures in just eight days.

Sea Shepherd France announced on Tuesday that it has launched a separate online petition addressed to Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, asking her not to extradite Watson.