International police organization Interpol has removed Sea Shepherd founder and anti-whaling activist Paul Watson from its “red notice” list, which signifies its highest priority targets for capture.
“The Japanese whalers have been after me for 14 years ever since I was first detained in Frankfurt, Germany in May 2012," Watson said in a social media post. "It has been an incredible pursuit by a very powerful nation using unlimited resources, but finally I am free.”
Watson was placed on the red notice list at the request of Japan, which has pursued him since 2010 when he allegedly threw explosives at a Japanese whaling ship, accusations Watson disputes.
Those accusations led to Watson’s incarceration in Greenland last year, with Watson imprisoned for five months as a result of a Japanese extradition request. Ultimately, however, Danish Minister of Justice Peter Humlegaard declined to extradite Watson to Japan, citing concerns over the length of the sentence he might be dealt in a Japanese court.
Watson was freed on 17 December 2024 and flew to France, where he remains.
His lawyer in France, William Julie, told Al Jazeera on 22 July that Interpol had removed Watson’s most wanted listing because it believed the initial red notice was “disproportionate.”
Al Jazeera also noted that an Interpol spokesperson had told French press agency AFP that the “decision [to remove Watson from the red list] was made in light of new facts, including the refusal by the Kingdom of Denmark to extradite Mr Watson. This is in line with normal procedures.”
Sea Shepherd France posted a statement on Instagram, which applauded the decision, saying it “puts an end to an unjustified attempt at criminalization and recognizes what we have always denounced: the instrumentalization of justice to protect the interests of Japanese whalers.”
The Sea Shepherd statement offered a quote from Watson, in which he referenced what he called “the blatant illegality of Japanese whaling operations in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary” and called the decision “a small victory for my justice system, a great victory for the whales’ justice system.”
The post also noted that while the decision was a “moral and symbolic victory,” Watson’s Japanese arrest warrant is still in place, and could be executed by any country which chose to do so, limiting Watson’s freedom of movement.
