A court in Greenland has ruled that anti-whaling activist Paul Watson must remain in custody pending a decision to extradite him to Japan.
The veteran campaigner, who has featured in the reality television show "Whale Wars", was apprehended by police in July as his ship docked in Greenland's capital, Nuuk. They were acting on a 2012 Japanese warrant which accuses him of causing damage to a Japanese whaling ship, obstructing business and injuring a crew member during an encounter in Antarctic waters in February 2010.
Dressed in jeans and a white shirt, Mr Watson sat beside his defence lawyers and listened to proceedings through an interpreter as several of his supporters looked on. "This is about revenge for a television show that extremely embarrassed Japan in the eyes of the world," he told the small courtroom. "What happened in the Southern Ocean is documented by hundreds of hours of video," Mr Watson said. "I think a review of all the video and of all the documentation will exonerate me from the accusations."
However the prosecution argued that the defendant was a flight risk, and the judge concluded he should remain in custody until 2 October.
Paul Watson is the former head of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which he left in 2022 to set up the Captain Paul Watson Foundation. He was also a founding member of Greenpeace, but they parted ways in 1977, amid disagreements over his radical tactics. The 73-year old Canadian-American campaigner has been a controversial figure known for confrontations with whaling vessels at sea.
At the defence's request, the judge granted permission for a video clip to be played, which appeared to show a zodiac-type speedboat sailing alongside a Japanese ship and firing a stink bomb. However, Mr Watson's lawyers say a second video clip proves no-one was on deck at the time.