By Captain Paul Watson
Every situation provides an opportunity.
When my ship the John Paul DeJoria arrived in Nuuk, Greenland on July 21st, 2024, I knew there was a possibility that I could be flagged by the border control.
My name was no longer on the Interpol Red Notice Interpol website. I had not been flagged when I entered Ireland prior to departure from Dublin. But I did suspect that Japan might try to ambush me somewhere, sometime, despite the fact they had been unsuccessfully trying to capture me for the last fourteen years.
With the ship alongside the fuel dock and secured, I scanned the quay for signs of trouble.
It did not take long. A couple of white unmarked vans arrived, and I was only mildly surprised to see several Danish police officers stepping onto the dock. This was quite obviously not your routine clearance.
I took a seat on the captain’s chair on the bridge and watched as fourteen very zealous police officers began to climb the gangway to make their way to the wheelhouse.
There could only be one reason for this uniformed posse of determined Danes.
All fourteen officers quietly crowded into the wheelhouse; all eyes focused intently upon me. The largest officer, a very large Nordic looking dude approached me, one hand on the butt of his sidearm.
“Are you Paul Watson?” He asked with a menacing voice.
“Yes,” I replied.
He grabbed my shirt with both hands and pulled me roughly off the chair.
“I assume I’m under arrest.” I said with a slight smile.
He reacted like I was resisting, interpreting my smile as being aggressive, pushing his thumbs into my chest. All he said was “yes.”
“On what charge?” I asked.
“You will find out.” He forced me to turn around, pulled my arms behind my back and painfully squeezed the cuffs onto my wrists. He then shoved me towards the door and onto the port bridge wing.
“Do you think you have enough officers?” I joked.
I was led down the gangway, shoved into one of the vans. We drove to the police station where they locked me in a holding cell for a few hours. It was a cold concrete cubicle with a slim plastic grey mattress on the cold floor. Thankfully in my pocket was a small booklet of poems by Lord Byron to help me pass the time.
A few hours later the same dozen police officers, looking very stern, escorted me into a courtroom where I had the distinct displeasure to be introduced for the first time to Mariam Khalilm the Danish prosecutor whose immediate impression struck me as being deliberately and unpleasantly hostile.
The judge was an indigenous woman who said little and seemed quite submissive to the histrionic demands of the prosecutor who was describing me as a dangerously violent terrorist lunatic threat to society that had to be kept in custody for the safety of the community. Mariam colorfully described me as an armed and dangerous international fugitive. I must admit she was convincing. I was rather flattered that she had such a flamboyant opinion of me.
The judge bought her story and ordered me to be sent to the Nuuk prison until August 14th.
The police car made its way over a stark barren landscape of broken rocks but with a beautiful view of the sea on the right side until this Gulag looking grey concrete building came into view.
And thus, I found myself in what would be my new home away from home for the next five months.
As prisons go, Nuuk prison is an incredibly pleasant place. All the prisoners and many of the prison guards were mostly indigenous Greenlanders and all quite friendly. My cell was larger than my cabin on the ship and equipped with a small fridge, a desk, a television, a comfortable bunk and a side private bathroom with a sink, toilet and shower. The best feature however was the large, unbarred window with a panoramic view of the fjord, small bergs of ice, the mountains and on my very first day, not far offshore I saw a plume of spray and then the thrilling sight of a humpback whale lifting her tail out of the water and alongside of her a small calf emerging from the sea with a splash of joyful fun.
My first thought was that some people would pay good money for a room with a view like mine.
It was like being back in the Southern Ocean where this entire drama began years ago. I recalled something Samuel Johnson once wrote: “Being in a ship is like being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.” Despite his sage observation, I preferred the ship.
Assessing my situation, the initial outlook was moderately alarming. After 12 years, the Japanese authorities had finally managed to convince a country to detain me. Not surprised that it was Denmark, the only nation other than Japan that indulges in the annual viciously cruel massacre of defenseless dolphins.
In fact, it was the dolphin killers of the Danish Faroe Islands that had alerted the Japanese government of our intended refueling stop in Nuuk, Greenland. Little did they realize what a mistake that was – for them.
Neither the Japanese or the Faroese considered for a moment that the interception, arrest and false accusations would turn out to be for us, a victorious exposure of their joint murderous and criminal enterprises. For the moment I was quite happy to have them celebrating in Taiji, Tokyo and Torshavn. We now had an opportunity to once again alert the world to their arrogant avaricious atrocities.
From the window of my cell, I waved goodbye as I watched my ship exercise a close sail by on the fjord before heading out to sea enroute to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Our plan to transit the Northwest Passage was changed. The purpose of the voyage was to focus attention on the deployment of the new Japanese whale factory ship the Kangei Maru and the intention of the Japanese whaling industry to return to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
This arrest presented an excellent opportunity for new much less expensive plan. The prison in Nuuk simply became a new ship. I called it the good ship Nuuk and the objective remained the same – to focus international attention on Japan’s illegal whaling operations with the added benefit of directing attention to the on-going obscene mass murder of dolphins in the Faroe Islands.
As I watched my ship sail out of the fjord the scene before me reminded me of my time in the Southern Ocean. The small bergs in the sea, the snow-covered mountains, the whales and the Aurora Australis replaced by the Aurora Borealis.
The John Paul DeJoria was followed all the way to Halifax by the strangely named Danish warship Lauge Koch. The Danish refused to explain why but it was quite unusual and certainly smacked of a petty but very expensive (for them) attempt of intimidation. When Captain Locky MacLean did a “Crazy Ivan” on them in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Danish captain went crying to the Canadian Coast Guard but nothing came of it. A “Crazy Ivan” is a 180 degree turn on a pursuing vessel. The Danes were miles behind, but it had forced them to turn and run away.
And thus began the fine months campaign that brought worldwide attention to the Japanese criminal whaling enterprise in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
Every 28 days I would be brought to court where the prosecutor raved about how dangerous I was and the judge would order me detained for an additional 28 days, In August, September, October, November and December. It appeared that no one wanted to make a decision and all they could do was stall until someone did something.
Meanwhile a flurry of activity was happening internationally with thousands of members of the public signing petitions and writing to the Danish government. Sea Shepherd France mobilized dozens of city halls including Paris, Nice and Lyon to display “Free Paul Watson” banners. President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Michael Barnier took up my situation along with Brazilian President Lula De Silva and numerous celebrities like Pierce Brosnan, James Cameron, Martin Sheen, Sylvia Earle and Dr. Jane Goodall. Suddenly doe Denmark it was no longer a simple case of extradition.
Once a week, the guards would deliver a huge stack of mail. The support was amazing with over 4,500 letters from around the world including many positive letters from Japan.
By my third court appearance on September 14th, I was expecting that the evidence would finally be reviewed. Instead, I was finally given an interrogation appointment by the police.
The Danish Prosecutor Mariam Khalilm was right out of central casting for the role of the ruthless and biased prosecutor. We discovered that she had openly signed her support for the bloody Grindadrap in the Faroes. If the woman saw no evil in the barbaric murder of entire families of dolphins, I certainly could not expect any consideration from her. She was out for blood, and it became quite evident the me that her attitude would be an advantage.
At the prosecutor’s request, the judge refused to review the documentation or the arguments from my defense team. He did allow the video that the Japanese provided however which seemed blatantly prejudicial.
I used every opportunity of speaking in the court to denounce the crimes of the Japanese whaling industry after which the judge at the insistence of the prosecutor ordered me to return to court on October 23rd.
Much to Mariam’s annoyance I said, “This is my 73rd day in prison. My accusers are criminals, and this isn’t just my opinion – it’s the judgement from the International Court of Justice and the Australian Federal Court. We’re talking about a bruise of someone’s cheek caused not by our stink bomb but by their own pepper spray. The Japanese rammed and spilt a ship in two, risking the lives of 6 crew members, whom we had to save. I cannot believe that Denmark would extradite me to Japan – it would be my death sentence. Denmark respects human rights.”
I felt that the prolongation of the case was working in my favor. It was obvious that the situation was becoming complex. In July the Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard stated that my case was not political and that he would respect whatever decision made by the Greenland court.
On October 23rd, the police escorted me to my fifth court appearance in Nuuk. And once again the court ordered me detained for another month with our intrepid prosecutor claiming it was for the safety of the public.
I was again given an opportunity to speak. Instead of attempting to defend myself I decided to use the opportunity to expose and condemn Japan’s crimes.
“There are no surprises here, Japan gets what Japan wants. This is a criminal enterprise, and they’re just using the Danish judicial system to get their way. They want to go back to killing whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. They’re afraid we’re going to expose them again.”
As October transited into November, the nights began to grow longer, the snow began to get higher as the time behind the walls slowly ticked by.
I returned to court for the seventh time on December 2nd, I was thrilled to see so many supporters holding signs and singing Happy Birthday. Even the police wished me a happy day, despite Mariam the prosecutor giving them the hairy eyeball.
In a replay of the previous six appearances, the prosecution demanded an additional remand until December 30th. This time the judge disagreed and ordered me to reappear on December 18th citing that the Ministry of Justice would be making a decision on the case within two weeks.
Mariam had already made her decision and the prosecution, and the Greenland police sent their position to the Attorney General that I would be extradited to Japan so she fully expected me to be kept in prison until the end of the year.
The judge gave me the opportunity to make a statement
“I never thought that back in July I would see my 74th birthday here in this courtroom because in July I was confident that the evidence and the documentation would show and prove that not only was I not involved in any planning or participation in the alleged incident and all that was needed was for the evidence to be reviewed. I was not involved with any crime.
Japan on the other hand destroyed a ship and injured crew members without any legal consequences. There is one law for them and another law for me, I guess.
This is injustice.
And why is this being done?
The prosecutor says because of the “severity” of the crime.
The “severity” of the crime!
A Japanese poacher gets a tiny blister on his cheek which wasn’t even caused by me but was most likely caused by their own pepper spray blowing back in his face. This could have been proven if the whalers had not destroyed the clothing they were wearing. The chemical residue on their clothing would have conclusively proven that it was pepper spray and not one of our noncorrosive, nontoxic stink bombs.
Where is this “severity” that the prosecutor claims can compare to “firing bullets into a house of innocent people.”
It’s simple. It’s clear, the fact is that Japan has threatened Denmark that they will cancel a contract on offshore wind turbines unless Denmark turns me over to Japan. Japan has threatened France that they will drop out of the scheduled ocean conference in Nice in 2025 if France continues to support me.
This is a problem. It’s blatantly political and Denmark cannot extradite me on political grounds and certainly not for something so minimal and especially to a country where the judicial system is based on daily interrogation’s until they get a confession before the accused can even appear before a judge. The Japanese legal system us medieval, has been condemned by Amnesty International and numerous human rights organizations.
Denmark is a champion of human rights and there is no way that I can see Denmark sending me to Japan on these politically motivated false accusations of very minimal allegations.
This court will do what this court will do. But it’s so political and this prosecutor signed a statement supporting the Grind in the Faroes, so she also has a political involvement and a bias and when she says she hasn’t heard of me she’s lying. She certainly has because of our long-time involvement with that particular activity in the Faroe Islands which is a violation of the Berne Convention, the same convention that justifies my interventions.
I have never done anything violent in my life. I don’t even protest. What I do is to intervene against illegal activities and what Japan is doing is a violation of the IWC’s Global Moratorium on Commercial Whaling and that the illegality of Japanese whaling was upheld as being a criminal operation by the International Court of Justice in 2014 and that is why I am here today of my birthday.”
At 0846 on December 17th, one of the guards brought a phone to my cell. saying It was my lawyer Julie Stage calling from Copenhagen to tell me that the Justice Minister made the decision to release me.
I was given an hour to pack up and just like that I was out the door.
I arrived back in France on December 20th in time to spend the Christmas holidays with my wife and two young sons,
The next day over 2,000 people assembled at the Place De Republic for a welcoming rally organized by Hugo Clement and Vakita and Sea Shepherd France. Prime Minister Michael Barnier attended to show his support.
With my release Operation Kangei Maru, the campaign to bring international attention to the launching of the new Japanese factory ship and continuing illegal activities of the Japanese whaling industry ended successfully.
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