Whaling foe faces extradition

Paul Watson, president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and long-time proponent of direct-action environmentalism, was seized on April 2 by Netherlands police acting on behalf of the Norwegian government.

Norway wants Watson to serve a sentence handed down when he was convicted in absentia for anti-whaling protest activities in Norway.

"This is an election year in Norway, and Paul's life is the floundering prime minister's ticket to election. Holland has unintentionally involved itself in the politics of Norway's election and the politics of illegal whaling.

"As well, Holland does not know that Paul has received specific death threats from Norwegians for years", said Sea Shepherd's international director, Lisa Distefano. "If Paul is imprisoned in Norway, we know he'll never leave alive."

Watson, a co-founder of Greenpeace, has actively opposed Norway's illegal commercial whaling operations since 1992, when Norway began openly violating the global moratorium on whaling imposed in 1986 by the International Whaling Commission.

At a preliminary hearing on April 3 in Haarlem, Judge Toeter ordered Watson held for 20 days to allow Norway to make a formal request for extradition.

"We are asking everyone who cares about whales and the future of the living oceans to write their elected representatives, call their embassies, call the Foreign Office in the Netherlands and consulates in Norway, and protest this persecution of a man who is making a difference", said Distefano.

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