FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, May 22, 1997
CONTACT:
Mike Markarian, (301) 585-2591, MikeM@fund.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today at 12:00 noon, members of The Fund for Animals, Compassion Over Killing, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and many other groups rallied at the Netherlands Embassy, 4200 Linnean Avenue NW, to demand the release of Captain Paul Watson. Several costumed "jailbirds" and "whales" were in attendance.
Watson, co-founder of Greenpeace and current president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, has been imprisoned in the Netherlands since April 2, and is awaiting a hearing to determine whether he will be extradited to Norway. Norwegian officials want Watson to serve a sentence of 120 days in jail imposed when he was tried "in absentia." The case involved the scuttling of a Norwegian whaling ship at port in the Lofoten Islands in 1992. Norway has filed additional charges relating to a 1994 encounter between the Sea Shepherd vessel, Whales Forever, and the Norwegian Coast Guard ship, the Andenes. During this confrontation the Norwegian vessel rammed the unarmed Whales Forever, on which at least ten journalists were aboard.
Says Michael Markarian, director of campaigns for The Fund for Animals, "Norwegian whalers are the true criminals, as they continuously violate the international ban on commercial whaling. Captain Watson should be commended, not imprisoned, for exposing these scofflaws."
Watson and The Fund for Animals' president Cleveland Amory sailed on the first Sea Shepherd to the Magdalen Islands to stop the clubbing of baby seals in 1979. Watson has since captained many other vessels such as the Cleveland Amory and the Whales Forever, and has been the world's leading opponent to Norway's whaling. He has received numerous death threats from Norwegians, and it is feared that if he is extradited to Norway he will not leave the country alive.
Adds Cleveland Amory, founder and president of The Fund for Animals, "We call on the Netherlands to release Captain Watson, not to send a political prisoner to his certain death."
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