Court validates Paul Watson’s detainment

The Greenland Court of Appeal confirmed that extending environmental activist Paul Watson’s detention in Nuuk was lawful. Watson, aged 73, has been in custody for 84 days following his arrest by Greenland Police with Danish officers’ assistance, upon a Japanese arrest warrant for an incident in Antarctica in 2010 involving an alleged attack on a Japanese whaling ship. Greenland’s Police declared that evidence presented at the hearing showed that Watson had thrown stink bombs, which his defense argued caused minimal harm. Ultimately, Denmark’s Ministry of Justice must decide on Watson’s potential extradition to Japan, with input from Greenland’s Police and the Attorney General. Meanwhile, Watson has been granted permission to have the detention case reviewed by the Supreme Court, though no date for this has been set.