- Demand for Japanese content booms post 'Shogun'
- As India's Bollywood shifts, stars and snappers click
- Mystery drones won't interfere with Santa's work: US tracker
- Djokovic eyes more Slam glory as Swiatek returns under doping cloud
- Australia's in-form Head confirmed fit for Boxing Day Test
- Brazilian midfielder Oscar returns to Sao Paulo
- 'Wemby' and 'Ant-Man' to make NBA Christmas debuts
- US agency focused on foreign disinformation shuts down
- On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis launches holy Jubilee year
- 'Like a dream': AFP photographer's return to Syria
- Chiefs seek top seed in holiday test for playoff-bound NFL teams
- Panamanians protest 'public enemy' Trump's canal threat
- Cyclone death toll in Mayotte rises to 39
- Ecuador vice president says Noboa seeking her 'banishment'
- Leicester boss Van Nistelrooy aware of 'bigger picture' as Liverpool await
- Syria authorities say armed groups have agreed to disband
- Maresca expects Man City to be in title hunt as he downplays Chelsea's chancs
- Man Utd boss Amorim vows to stay on course despite Rashford row
- South Africa opt for all-pace attack against Pakistan
- Guardiola adamant Man City slump not all about Haaland
- Global stocks mostly higher in thin pre-Christmas trade
- Bethlehem marks sombre Christmas under shadow of war
- NASA probe makes closest ever pass by the Sun
- 11 killed in blast at Turkey explosives plant
- Indonesia considers parole for ex-terror chiefs: official
- Global stocks mostly rise in thin pre-Christmas trade
- Postecoglou says Spurs 'need to reinforce' in transfer window
- Le Pen says days of new French govt numbered
- Global stocks mostly rise after US tech rally
- Villa boss Emery set for 'very difficult' clash with Newcastle
- Investors swoop in to save German flying taxi startup
- How Finnish youth learn to spot disinformation
- South Korean opposition postpones decision to impeach acting president
- 12 killed in blast at Turkey explosives plant
- Panama leaders past and present reject Trump's threat of Canal takeover
- Hong Kong police issue fresh bounties for activists overseas
- Saving the mysterious African manatee at Cameroon hotspot
- India consider second spinner for Boxing Day Test
- London wall illuminates Covid's enduring pain at Christmas
- Poyet appointed manager at South Korea's Jeonbuk
- South Korea's opposition vows to impeach acting president
- The tsunami detection buoys safeguarding lives in Thailand
- Teen Konstas to open for Australia in Boxing Day India Test
- Asian stocks mostly up after US tech rally
- US panel could not reach consensus on US-Japan steel deal: Nippon
- The real-life violence that inspired South Korea's 'Squid Game'
- Blogs to Bluesky: social media shifts responses after 2004 tsunami
- Tennis power couple de Minaur and Boulter get engaged
- Supermaxi yachts eye record in gruelling Sydney-Hobart race
- Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts, spewing columns of lava
Anti-whaling activist Watson to face Greenland detention hearing
American-Canadian anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, arrested in July in Greenland, will face a judge Thursday who will rule on his continued detention as a possible extradition requested by Japan looms.
The district court in Nuuk -- the capital of the autonomous Danish territory -- will rule on whether there is cause to extend his detention for up to another four weeks.
"The hearing on August 15, 2024 will therefore not deal with the question of whether or not to extradite him," police said in a statement.
The decision on whether he will be extradited to Japan, which ultimately will be up to the Danish Ministry of Justice, will be taken independently.
Nevertheless, it will still be discussed at the hearing, his lawyer Jonas Christoffersen told a press conference on Monday.
"As a starting point, you would say that a person should be detained during the extradition case, because otherwise there could be a risk that the person would leave," Christoffersen said.
Watson, who featured in the reality TV series "Whale Wars", founded Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF), and is known for radical tactics including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.
The 73-year-old campaigner was arrested on July 21 when the ship John Paul DeJoria docked in Nuuk to refuel.
- 'Red Notice' -
The vessel was on its way to "intercept" a new Japanese whaling factory vessel in the North Pacific, according to the CPWF.
Watson was arrested on the basis of a 2012 Interpol "Red Notice" after Japan accused him of causing damage to one of its whaling ships in the Antarctic two years earlier and causing injury.
Only Japan, Iceland and Norway allow commercial whaling.
Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd's French branch, has told AFP that Watson believes his arrest to be political, with Japan wanting him because he is a "political symbol".
Essemlali explained Monday that the arrest warrant had been made confidential and was no longer listed on Interpol's website, and Watson would otherwise not have stopped in Nuuk.
"All this was orchestrated. After all, 14 federal police officers and a Danish public prosecutor were put on a direct plane to Greenland to arrest Paul."
Japan asked Danish authorities to extradite him at the end of July.
In Japan, Watson faces a charge of causing injury, which can carry up to 15 years in prison or a fine of up to 500,000 yen ($3,300).
He also faces a charge of forcible obstruction of business, which carries a penalty of up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 500,000 yen.
- 'Presumption of guilt' -
At the upcoming hearing in Nuuk, Watson's lawyers intend to argue the detention he has already been subjected to is not proportional to the offence of which he is suspected.
"We will argue that the three weeks that have passed is more than enough and you can't extend it further than that," Christoffersen said.
With Watson's history of activism, Essemlali said that Japan would not be lenient, and given his age he would likely spend the rest of his life incarcerated.
"We absolutely want to avoid his extradition to Japan, because we know that if he is extradited to Japan, he won't get out alive", Essemlali said.
Francois Zimeray, another one of Watson's lawyers, also blasted the Japanese legal system on Monday.
"In Japan, there is a presumption of guilt and the prosecutors are proud to announce that they have a 99.6 percent conviction rate," Zimeray said.
Watson's arrest has sparked a series of protests calling for his release.
French President Emmanuel Macron's office has asked Denmark not to extradite the activist, who has lived in France for the past year.
D.Moore--AMWN