Interpol lifts red notice for anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson
Interpol had issued the notice against Watson, known for tactics including confrontations with whaling ships at sea, at the request of Japan, but has now decided the measure was "disproportionate," lawyer William Julie said. A spokesperson for Interpol confirmed to AFP that the Commission for the Control of Interpol's Files (CCF) had deleted the red notice.
Watson, a 74-year-old Canadian American, was arrested and detained in Greenland in July, 2024 on a 2012 Japanese warrant, which accused him of causing damage to a whaling ship and injuring a whaler. He was released in December after Denmark refused the Japanese extradition request over the 2010 clash with whalers. On December 20, he returned to France, where his children attend school, following a high-profile campaign in his support.
"The decision to delete Mr Watson's red notice was made by the CCF – an independent body tasked to ensure that the processing of personal data by Interpol is in compliance with its constitution and rules," the Interpol spokesperson said.
"This is not a judgement on the merits of the case, or the events that occurred in 2010, but a decision based on Interpol's rules on the processing of data," the spokesperson added. "The CCF decision was made in light of new facts, including the refusal by the Kingdom of Denmark to extradite Mr Watson. This is in line with normal procedures."
In a statement, Julie said that the CCF considered that the red notice "did not meet Interpol's standards, citing the disproportionate nature of the charges, Mr Watson's supposed only indirect involvement (which is contested), the considerable passage of time since the alleged facts, Denmark's refusal to extradite him and the fact that several other countries declined to act on Japan's arrest or extradition requests."
He also said that the Commission pointed to the existence of "political elements" around the case. Regarding potential motivations, the CCF remarked that the disproportionate nature of the red notice "tends to highlight the strategic character of the case and its symbolic importance beyond its intrinsic criminal characteristics or pure law-enforcement interest."
"The Commission suggested this may indicate the presence of political elements supporting the case – a point it makes subtly but significantly," Jolie said in the statement.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Russia kills 25 in Ukraine, as Kremlin says 'committed' to peace
The strikes on several regions came hours after US President Donald Trump issued Moscow with a new deadline to end its grinding invasion of Ukraine -- now in its fourth year -- or face tough new sanctions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of purposefully targeting a prison in the Zaporizhzhia region -- that Russia claims as its own -- killing 16 people and wounding more than 40 others. "It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility," Zelensky said on social media in response. The Kremlin denied that claim. "The Russian army does not strike civilian targets," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including from AFP. Peskov added that Moscow had "taken note" of Trump's new deadline and told journalists that it remained "committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and secure our interests." 'War crimes' Ukraine's justice ministry said Moscow's forces hit the prison with four glide bombs, while police said 16 inmates were killed and 43 were wounded. Bricks and debris were strewn on the ground around buildings with blown-out windows, according to images released by the ministry. The facility's perimeter was intact and there was no threat that inmates would escape, it added. Rescue workers were seen searching for survivors in pictures released by the region's emergency services. The source added there were no Russian war prisoners being held at the centre. Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said the Zaporizhzhia attack was further evidence of Russian "war crimes". "People held in places of detention do not lose their right to life and protection," he wrote on social media. In addition to the glide bomb attack, the Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched 37 drones and two missiles overnight, adding that its air defence systems had downed 32 of the drones. Zelensky said that among the separate attacks, Russian forces had targeted a hospital in the town of the Kamyanske in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Hospital targeted "Three people were killed in the attack, including a pregnant woman. Her name was Diana. She was only 23-years-old," Zelensky said. Separate strikes in the eastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia killed six people, regional authorities said. In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, the region's acting governor said. Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia's summer offensive, which has made fresh advances into areas largely spared since the start of the invasion in 2022. The Russian defence ministry claimed fresh advances across the sprawling front line on Tuesday, saying its forces had taken control of two more villages -- one in the Donetsk region, and another in the Zaporizhzhia region. The prison strike on Tuesday came on the three-year anniversary of a attack on another detention facility in occupied Ukrainian territory that Kyiv blamed on Moscow and that was reported to have killed dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers. Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the strike over the night of July 29 three years ago on the detention centre in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, which the Kremlin says is part of Russia. Ukraine says that dozens of its soldiers who laid down their arms after a long Russian siege of the port city of Mariupol were killed in that attack on the Olenivka detention facility.


Local France
3 hours ago
- Local France
Violent videos draw more French teens into 'terror' plots, say prosecutors
French prosecutors are alarmed at an increasing number of young teenage boys seemingly plotting "terror" attacks, and say they all share an addiction to violent videos online. As communities worldwide worry about boys being exposed to toxic and misogynistic influences on social media, French magistrates say they are looking into what draws young teens into "terrorism". "Just a few years ago, there were just a handful of minors charged with terror offences," France's National Anti-Terror Prosecutor's Office ( Parquet national anti-terroriste , PNAT) said. "But we had 15 in 2013, 18 in 2024 and we already had 11 by July 1st" this year. They are aged 13 to 18 and hail from all over France, the PNAT said. Lawyers and magistrates told AFP these teens are usually boys with no delinquent past, many of whom are introverts or have had family trouble. The PNAT opened a special branch in May to better examine the profiles of minors drawn into "terrorism", but it said it has already noticed they are all "great users of social media". Advertisement "Most are fans of ultra-violent, war or pornographic content," it said. In France, "terrorism" is largely synonymous with extremist Islamist ideas such as those of the Islamic State jihadist group. Only in recent months has the PNAT taken on cases different in nature -- one an adult suspected of a racist far-right killing, and the other an 18-year-old charged with developing a misogynist plot to kill women. A 14-year-old schoolboy who stabbed to death a teaching assistant in June was a fan of "violent video games", although his case was not deemed "terrorist" in nature. 'Proving themselves as men' In the case of France's youngest "terror" suspects, a judicial source told AFP, social media provides them with a flow of violent videos that are "not necessarily linked to terrorism", such as from Latin American cartels. "They think they're proving themselves as men by watching them," the source said. Sociologist Farhad Khosrokhavar said the teens were "neither children nor adults". This "leads them to violence in order to be recognised as adults -- even if it's a negative adult," he said. Laurene Renaut, a researcher looking into jihadist circles online, said social media algorithms could suck adolescents in fast. "In less than three hours on TikTok, you can find yourself in an algorithm bubble dedicated to the Islamic State group", she said. You can be bathing in "war chants, decapitations, AI reconstructions of glorious (according to IS) past actions or even simulations of actions to come," she said. The algorithms feed users "melancholic" content to boost their "feeling of loneliness, with ravaged landscapes, supposed to reflect the soul," she said. 'Injustice' One such teenager said he was motivated by a sense of "injustice" after seeing a video online of an attack on a mosque in New Zealand. White supremacist Brenton Tarrant went on a rampage, killing 51 worshippers at mosques around Christchurch in March 2019 in the country's deadliest modern-day mass shooting. The French suspect was convicted last year for planning "terror" attacks on far-right bars. He told investigators it started when he was 13 and playing Minecraft, a video game, on the gamer social media platform Discord. Advertisement "Someone sent Tarrant's video," he said. "I thought it was unjust to see the men, women and children be massacred." "I then watched the videos of imams telling people to stay calm and those of terrorists from the far right, and I thought it was unjust," he added. "Then I saw those of jihadists urging help," he said. "I thought that by defending this cause, my life would make sense." A French appeals court in July 2024 sentenced him to four years in jail, including two suspended, after he contacted an undercover agent to find out about weapons. The court justified the sentence with the "gravity" of his planned actions, but noted he lacked signs of "deeply rooted ideological radicalisation". Rather, it said, the defendant was the child of fighting parents from a very violent neighbourhood, who had been "significantly deprived of affection" and had sought to "fit in" with internet users. His lawyer Jean-Baptiste Riolacci told AFP he was an "essentially lonely, sad and good kid, whose only occupation beyond his computer was gliding around on his scooter". 'Guesswork' The judicial source, who spoke anonymously due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the French system favoured early intervention through charging youth for associating with "terrorist" criminals, and then adapting their punishment according to the severity of the accusations. Advertisement But attorney Pierre-Henri Baert, who defended another teenager, said the system did not work. His client was handed three years behind bars in May for sharing an IS propaganda post calling for attacks against Jewish people as a 16-year-old. "It's a very harsh sentence considering his very young age, the fact he had no (criminal) record, and was really in the end just accused of statements online," he said. Another lawyer, who worked on similar cases but asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue, agreed. "When the judiciary goes after people for terrorist criminal association, it's basically doing guesswork," she said, adding that the "terrorist" label could be very stigmatising. "There's no differentiation between a kid who sent aggressive messages and a suspect who actually bought weapons," she added. 'Fantasising about jihadism' Two judicial sources said teens prosecuted for alleged "terrorism" are usually only spotted through their behaviour on social media. They are then charged over other actions, such as moving to an encrypted messaging app, sharing recipes to make explosives or looking for funding, the sources said. A Paris court will in September try three teenagers who, aged 14 and 15, allegedly planned to blow up a truck outside the Israeli embassy in Belgium. They had been spotted at high school for their "radical remarks", but were then found in a park with "bottles of hydrochloric acid" containing "aluminium foil", a homemade type of explosive, the PNAT said. Advertisement Their telephones showed they had watched videos of massacres. Jennifer Cambla, a lawyer who represents one of the defendants, said accusations against her client were disproportionate. "My client may have had the behaviour of a radicalised person by consulting jihadist websites, which is forbidden. But he is far from having plotted an attack," she said. But another lawyer, speaking anonymously, said arresting teenagers "fantasising about jihadism" could be an opportunity to turn their lives around -- even if it involved "a monstrous shock". "The arrests are tough," with specialised forces in ski masks pulling sacks over the suspect's head, they said. But "as minors, they are followed closely, they see therapists. They are not allowed on social media, and they do sport again," the lawyer said. One of the judicial sources warned that it was not clear that this worked. It "makes it look like they are being rapidly deradicalised, but we do not know if these youth could again be drawn in by extremist ideas," they said.


AFP
6 hours ago
- AFP
Photo of US aircraft dropping fire retardant falsely linked to Thailand-Cambodia conflict
"Thailand has used poisonous smoke weapon against Cambodia," reads the Khmer-language caption of a Facebook image shared on the verified page of Cambodian Secretary of State Vengsrun Kuoch on July 28, 2025. The image, which was shared more than 6,300 times, shows what appears to be pink smoke being dropped from an aircraft over a hilly area. A Thai flag is superimposed over the image with text reading, "Thai troops use poison gas to kill Cambodian civilians". Image Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on July 29, 2025, with a red X added by AFP The same image was also shared thousands of times across social media before Thailand and Cambodia agreed to an unconditional ceasefire to end their bloodiest military clashes in more than a decade (archived link). The fighting, over a smattering of ancient temples in disputed zones along their 800-kilometre (500-mile) border, has killed at least 42 people and displaced more than 300,000. Prior to the peace talks, Cambodia's defence ministry accused the Thai air force of deploying "poison gas" during the fighting -- an accusation Thailand's foreign affairs ministry rejected as "baseless" (archived here and here). The image circulating online does not show a Thai air force jet using a chemical weapon. A reverse image search on Google led to the same photo published on January 11 in a report by the Reuters news agency about efforts to put out the Palisades fire, the largest conflagration during the Los Angeles wildfires (archived link). The fires around the United States' second-largest city burned for three weeks, killing at least 30 people and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate their homes (archived link). The photo is captioned: "An air tanker drops fire retardant at the Palisades Fire, as seen from Woodland Hills, January 11. REUTERS/Ringo Chiu." Image Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared image (left) and the Reuters photo (right) According to a report by Canadian broadcaster CBC, the fire retardant -- a pink powder -- is dropped by planes ahead of the fire's path to slow the flames and allow time to build fire lines (archived link). Further keyword searches based on the plane's livery seen in the Reuters photo found the aircraft belongs to 10 Tanker, a company that specialises in dropping fire retardant (archived link). AFP has also debunked other misinformation about the Thailand-Cambodia conflict.