Paul Watson: Sea Shepherd founder won’t be extradited [Video]

COPENHAGEN –

Denmark released anti-whaling activist Paul Watson from detention on Tuesday and said it had rejected a Japanese request to extradite him over criminal charges dating back more than a decade.

U.S.-Canadian Watson, 74, founder of the Sea Shepherd conservationist group and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, was released in Greenland’s capital Nuuk, police in the autonomous Danish territory said.

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Watson was apprehended when his ship docked in Greenland in July.

“I’m certainly relieved, especially since it allows me to get home to my children before Christmas,” Paul Watson told Reuters after his release on Tuesday.

“I haven’t seen my children since June. But the support here in Greenland has been incredible,” he said, adding that he had received more than 4,000 letters of support, including around a dozen from supporters in Japan.

Denmark’s justice ministry …