Haarlem, The Netherlands; On Monday, June 9th at 1:45pm Dutch time, a cheer erupted in the courtroom as Judge Van der Pijl ruled that Captain Paul Watson will not go to Norway. "It's a victory that he will never be extradited to Norwa, even though they tried every possible means to get him." Victor Koppe, Watson's legal counsel announced.

Although the Dutch court accepted the technical ruling of the 120 day sentence, the court showed sympathy by making a surprising move when the judge announced prematurely that they would release Paul Watson on June 20th. "This conviction will be thrown out in appeal," stated Koppe confidently.

Watson was cleared of the other three charges which where additionally filed by the Norwegian Government at the last minute in their voracious attempt to extradite Watson. These charges all stemm from the incident during the summer of 1994, when the organisation's conservation yacht the 'Whales Forever' was rammed in international waters by the Norwegian navy guarding the whaling fleet off Skrova. Norway has been hunting whales in violation of the global ban on commercial whaling declared in 1986.

"We are ecstatic. This is a tremendous victory for Sea Shepherd's Paul Watson and environmental activism. It is only indirectly a victory for the whales, however, which Norway and Japan are still slaughtering by the thousands every year.. For the whales, it means at least that Paul Watson will continue to be able to lead Sea Shepherd in the ongoing campaign to halt this barbarism before it spreads its stain into the next century," stated Lisa Distefano, an International Director of Sea Shepherd.

Bob Hunter, a co-founder of Greenpeace along with Watson and acting president of Sea Shepherd in Watson's absence, called the charges "pure politics". "The Norwegian elections are coming up and Prime Minister Jageland is an appointee with a shaky political base," Hunter said, " Whaling is an issue that Jageland wants to downplay to the world yet wants to exploit to garner votes in his own country. He needs the support of the coastal districts, the home of the whaling industry."

Distefano confirmed that the Norwegians have good reason to be upset because, "In a way, this has been as successful as any of our high seas campaigns, we have been able to expose Norway's determination in persecuting Paul for political reasons which has actually succeeded in in illuminating to the worldtheir illegal and depraved whaling. We will continue this mission to make the world's oceans safe for all whales being persecuted by any country, especially Norway and Japan."