TOKYO: Japan reacted angrily on Wednesday (Jul 23) after Interpol lifted its crimson wished discover towards anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, insisting its personal arrest warrant stays legitimate.
Interpol had issued the discover towards Watson, identified for radical ways together with confrontations with whaling ships at sea, on the request of Japan.
However “Interpol has formally and completely dismissed the Crimson Discover towards me”, Watson stated in a press release on Tuesday, calling the transfer an finish to the Japanese whalers’ “vendetta”.
Interpol confirmed to AFP that it had deleted the crimson discover, which asks police worldwide to arrest a suspect.
Tokyo known as the choice “extraordinarily regrettable”, with high authorities spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi saying it might not deter Japan.
“The elimination would not change the truth that Japan’s arrest warrant for him is legitimate,” Hayashi advised an everyday information briefing.
“Our place stays unchanged that we are going to proceed to name on the events concerned for his extradition,” he stated.
Watson, a 74-year-old Canadian-American, was arrested and detained in Greenland in July 2024 on a 2012 Japanese warrant, which accused him of inflicting injury to a whaling ship and injuring a whaler.
He was launched in December after Denmark refused the Japanese extradition request over the 2010 conflict with whalers.
On Dec 20, Watson returned to France, the place his kids attend faculty, following a high-profile marketing campaign in his help.
