Dramatic moment: Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson is attacked and arrested

Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson was lured into an “ambush” in Denmark and arrested on the basis of an international arrest warrant presumably issued by Japan.

The Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd co-founder was reportedly handcuffed and taken into custody by 14 police officers and SWAT team members after his ship docked in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory. Images provided to Yahoo News by Watson’s latest project, Neptune’s Pirates, and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation show a dazed Watson being dragged into a van on Sunday morning (local time).

It is believed that a Red Notice – an international arrest warrant – was issued for Captain Watson’s previous anti-whaling campaign, which targeted Japan’s so-called scientific research program in Antarctica. Japan’s program was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2014, and Japan limited itself to hunting in its own territorial waters.

Related: “Absurd” whale product tested in Japanese vending machines

Fear that Paul Watson could die in prison if he was sent to Japan

Rob Read, COO of Neptune’s Pirates UK, said Watson’s supporters were in shock, with fears that Watson, 73, could die in prison if he is deported to Japan.

“Paul could face 15 years in prison, probably even life imprisonment. (It was) a total ambush by Japan, using an unpublished Interpol arrest warrant that was only filed in March of this year,” Read told Yahoo News via text message.

Denmark allows its self-governing archipelago, the Faroe Islands, to hunt whales and dolphins, something Neptune’s Pirates has actively campaigned against. Read, who is leading the campaign, said that as a European nation, Denmark has an obligation to protect whales.

“The arrest was organised jointly with Denmark as Paul was setting sail to protest again against Japanese whaling,” Read said.

More about whales and dolphins

The reason why Paul Watson travelled to Japan

Watson was aboard his 72-meter flagship, the M/Y John Paul Dejoria, planning to intercept and blockade Japan’s new whaling ship when he was arrested.

The mission was announced after Japan revealed it had added another species to its kill list this year: the fin whale, the second longest-hunted species after blue whales.

The video shows police telling Watson’s crewmates: “We came here and arrested Paul Watson on an international arrest warrant from Japan.”

Neptune’s Pirates said in a statement that they had no way of contacting Watson.

Locky MacLean, ship operations manager for the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, said the arrest had left the crew “completely shocked”.

“The Red Notice had disappeared several months ago. We were surprised because it could mean that it had been deleted or made confidential. We now understand that Japan made it confidential to lull Paul into a false sense of security. We implore the Danish government to release Captain Watson and not comply with this politically motivated demand,” he said in a statement.

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