SAVE demands the extradition to be stopped immediately

Paul Watson from Canada has been fighting to protect marine mammals for 40 years - especially against shark finning, in which 73 million sharks are killed for their fins or maimed and left to die slowly every year.
This has led to tality of the founder of Sea Shepherd, marine wildlife conservation organization.
On Mai 15th he was arrested upon his arrival at Frankfurt Airport, following an international arrest warrant from Costa Rica. The local judiciary accused him of “interfering in shipping traffic” during his actions in 2002 against illegal shark hunters. Paul Watson denies any criminal wrongdoing.
Costa Rica demands now Watson extradition, although Watson wanted to hand over the poachers he caught to the authorities in Costa Rica.

The German Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt has ruled that Watson should be released on bail of 250,000 euros. Now, Costa Rica has three months to submit a formal extradition request with full supporting documentation as a proof of the alleged offense. Then, the Higher Regional Court shall decide whether the activist should be extradited to Costa Rica. Watson may not leave the country until then.

Although a decision about the extradition shall be made by the Federal Ministry of Justice, but Minister of Justice Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger stated that the public prosecutor must decide.
In the meantime Paul Watson stays in Düsseldorf and he has got the support of the Greens in the Bundestag. “It is to be feared that Paul Watson would not get a fair trial in Costa Rica”, said Volker Beck, a spokesman for Human Rights Policy and Parliamentary Secretary of the Green parliamentary group confirming the view of Watson‘s attorneys. They believe that extradition would violate their client's human rights.

Various environmental organizations, such as the SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund, hold protest demanding an immediate end to extradition proceedings and calling on the public to join the protest: (http://www.seashepherd.de/news-and-media/news-120519-1.html)

“We consider Paul Watson to be an extraordinarily courageous activist, one of the boldest fighters in the battle against the senseless slaughter of sharks through finning. Fin amputation is one of the cruellest and most barbaric procedures that serves exclusively to produce an exotic delicacy, shark fin soup”, says Lars Gorschlüter, chairman of the SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund, who is in close contact with Paul Watson. “His arrest is a catastrophe, because the alleged offence has not been proved in a court of law and the prosecution began ten years after the incident.” “What is more”, SAVE continues, “we demand that Paul Watson receives due honor for his self-sacrificing commitment to conservation, rather than hold him against his will."
Therefore, the SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund turned to Chancellor of Germany Merkel in a letter asking for support and calling for immediate action.