Environmentalist Paul Watson, detained in Greenland, requested Emmanuel Macron for political asylum | EUROtoday

IHe hopes to acquire political asylum in France. Paul Watson, anti-whaling activist and founding father of the NGO Sea Shepherd, behind bars in Antarctica, requested “political asylum” from France in a letter addressed to Emmanuel Macron. This request was made in a letter to the French head of state just a few days in the past, Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France, mentioned at a press convention in Paris this Wednesday, October 16.

Paul Watson “wrote a letter in prison addressed to Emmanuel Macron”, “and which I passed to the president where Paul requests political asylum from France”, she mentioned, throughout this press convention the place supporters and attorneys of Paul Watson sounded the cost towards the prosecution and the extradition process to which he’s the topic.

The 73-year-old whale defender is the topic of a world arrest warrant issued by Japan. He was arrested in Greenland final July, an autonomous Danish territory, whereas he was en route together with his ship, the John Paul DeJoriato intercept a brand new Japanese whaling manufacturing facility ship. His detention was prolonged till October 23.

His extradition requested by Japan

Japan is demanding his extradition, having revived a request issued in 2012 by way of an Interpol purple discover. He accuses him of being co-responsible for harm and accidents on board a Japanese whaling ship two years earlier as a part of a marketing campaign led by Sea Shepherd. Paul Watson is accused of injuring the face of a Japanese sailor by throwing a stink bomb – butyric acid – to hinder the work of the whalers.

During the press convention, one of many members of Paul Watson’s protection workforce, French lawyer François Zimeray, mentioned the accusations towards Paul Watson have been “just pretexts” as a result of he “denounced the illegal nature” of Japanese whaling and “made” the Japanese “lose face in the eyes of the world”.

The activist “will never have a fair trial” if he’s extradited, the lawyer accused, sharing his perception that “if he is incarcerated in Japan, he will not come out alive.”