Anti-whaling Activist Watson Requests Political Asylum in France
Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, detained in Greenland and awaiting possible extradition to Japan, has appealed to President Emmanuel Macron for political asylum in France his Captain Paul Watson Foundation said on Wednesday.
US.-Canadian Watson, 73, founder of the Sea Shepherd conservationist group, was stopped by police when his ship docked at the port of Nuuk in Greenland on July 21.
He has since been detained in Greenland, a Danish autonomous region, while Denmark decides whether to extradite him to Japan.
Japan issued an international warrant for his arrest more than a decade ago, seeking him on charges of breaking into a Japanese vessel in the Antarctic Ocean in 2010, obstructing its business and causing injury as well as property damage.
Watson's detention was earlier this month prolonged until Oct. 23.
Watson, who denies all charges against him, could face up to 15 years in prison if he is extradited to Japan and convicted there, his lawyers have said.
(Reuters - Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Alexandra Hudson)