デンマーク、日本の請求を待つ　反捕鯨団体創設者の身柄引き渡し

【コペンハーゲンＡＦＰ＝時事】先週末にデンマークで逮捕された反捕鯨団体「シー・シェパード」の創設者、ポール・ワトソン容疑者（７３）について、同国の法務省は２４日、国際手配した日本側の引き渡し請求を待っている状態だと説明した。（写真は、反捕鯨団体「シー・シェパード」創設者ポール・ワトソン容疑者）
　米国とカナダの国籍を持つワトソン容疑者は２１日、日本の国際手配に基づき、デンマーク自治領グリーンランドで逮捕された。勾留期間は来月１５日までで、その間にデンマークの法務省が身柄の引き渡しについて決定する。
　だが、同省は２４日の声明で「他国で起訴するためのグリーンランドからの身柄引き渡しは、逮捕状を発付した国から請求を受けた場合にのみ」、その根拠について判断すると述べた。
　現在は日本の引き渡し請求を待つ状態で、その期限は「逮捕後３０日以内」だとしている。
　日本政府は同日、ワトソン容疑者逮捕に初めて言及。林芳正官房長官は会見で、以前から同容疑者の拘束を各国に働き掛けてきたとし、海上保安庁が関係省庁と協議をしながら「適切に対応していく」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/07/25-17:08）

Denmark is waiting for Japan's extradition for the veteran anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, arrested this weekend in Greenland, before ruling on the case, the justice ministry said Wednesday.
Watson, the 73-year-old American-Canadian founder of activist group Sea Shepherd, was arrested on Sunday in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, under an international arrest warrant issued by Japan.
He will remain in custody until August 15, while the Danish justice ministry decides whether he should be extradited.
But a justice ministry statement said Wednesday: Extradition from Greenland for prosecution in other countries can only occur following an extradition request from the country that issued the arrest warrant.
Only when such a request was received would the ministry decide whether there were grounds to extradite, the statement added. And for the moment, they are still waiting to hear from Japan.
Such an extradition request must be submitted no later than 30 days after the arrest.
But Japan's government, in its first comments on Watson's arrest, said Wednesday it had long been pressing countries to detain him.
Government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo the Coast Guard authority would take the appropriate action in the case, in consultation with other ministries.
- 'Appropriate action' -
French President Emmanuel Macron's office said Tuesday that he had already asked the Danish authorities not to extradite Watson, who has lived in France for the past year.
French screen legend Brigitte Bardot is among the campaigners who have rallied to his cause, calling for his release.
Watson was arrested after arriving in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, when the ship John Paul DeJoria docked to refuel.
The vessel was on its way to intercept Japan's new whaling factory vessel in the North Pacific, said a statement from the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF).
Watson was arrested on the basis of an Interpol Red Notice issued in 2012, when Japan has accused him of causing damage and injury to one of its Japanese whaling ships in the Antarctic two years earlier.
At the time Japanese ships, pursued aggressively by activists, hunted whales in the Antarctic and North Pacific for scientific purposes.
The CPWF said the arrest had come as a surprise since the Foundation's lawyers had reported that the Red Notice had been withdrawn.
Japan, Norway and Iceland are the last three countries in the world to practice commercial whale hunting.