“I want France to remain my home”

Paul Watson, leaving the court in Nuuk (Greenland), October 23, 2024. OSCAR SCOTT CARL In despair, Paul Watson emits a brief, stifled laugh. Wednesday October 23, in a court room in Nuuk, capital of the Danish autonomous territory, the 73-year-old activist has just learned that he will have to stay in the Greenlandic city’s prison until November 13, at least. During these additional three weeks, which come on top of the last four months spent in detention, the Danish Ministry of Justice continues to study the extradition request from Japan, at the origin of the international arrest warrant for the activist . On July 21, he was arrested during a brief visit to Greenland to refuel his boat, the John-Paul-DeJoria. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Why environmental activist Paul Watson was arrested in Greenland Add to your selections While a snowstorm darkens the city, in the courtroom, hands crossed and a sad look, the founder of Sea Shepherd sat across from Mariam Khalil, the Nuuk prosecutor. As during the last three hearings on his legal situation, organized approximately every month, the magistrate returns to the NGO’s operation against a Japanese whaler, in 2010, during which Paul Watson is accused of having committed damage and participated to the “wounds” of a sailor, targeted by a stink ball. To justify her continued detention, Ms. Khalil compares her case to a local case, dating from 2017, where a teenager fired live ammunition at a building then at several people without hitting them. When the septuagenarian becomes annoyed by this rapprochement, Finn Meinel, his lawyer, puts his hand on his arm then denounces a “shameful comparison” and without interest. Before a short deliberation, which will last no more than ten minutes, Paul Watson speaks in front of the court: he questions the objective of the court before denouncing a “political procedure” imposed by the whaling industry in Japan, a “criminal organization”. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Between whale defender Paul Watson and Japan, a long-term showdown Add to your selections Deprived of sea, Paul Watson moves heaven and earth to obtain his release. On Wednesday October 16, the activist requested political asylum from France in a letter sent to Emmanuel Macron. He thanks the President of the Republic for his “support” and mentions his admiration for the author Jules Verne or Commander Jacques-Yves Cousteau, met in 1986 during the Universal Exhibition in Vancouver, Canada. “I want France to remain our home,” underlines Paul Watson, met on Tuesday October 22, in a cell provided for visits in Nuuk prison, isolated along a fjord. You have 64.99% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.



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