By Jaime Lopez – May 7, 2015

Earlier this week, Canadian environmentalist Paul Watson appealed to his more than 500,000 Facebook followers to sign an online petition asking prosecutors in Puntarenas to drop criminal charges pending against the controversial founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Here’s the message posted by Mr. Watson:

Hi everyone,

I can use your help with this petition to get the Costa Rican government to drop their bogus charges against me. They are trying to extradite me for stopping a shark finning operation in 2002 in Guatemalan waters. This was done at the request of the government of Guatemala. No one was hurt. Nothing was damaged. Sharks were saved. Costa Rica has a problem with that.

The same courts that let the murderers of Jairo Mora Sandoval go free because the police and prosecutors conveniently lost the evidence now want to put me in prison for 15 years for saving sharks. We need to keep the pressure on Costa Rica to enable us to return to defend marine reserves, turtles, sharks, whales, dolphins and fish.

Mr. Watson is currently under the duress of an INTERPOL Red Notice, which seeks his capture and extradition to Costa Rica, where he would face criminal court in Puntarenas. Over the last few years, The Costa Rica Star has been covering the saga of Mr. Watson and his involvement in the Varadero case. As reported in May 2102:

Paul Watson, the controversial founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, was arrested by German law enforcement authorities in Frankfurt […] Mr. Watson was in command of the Sea Shepherd vessel Farley Mowat when he allegedly rammed a Costa Rican boat suspected of illegal shark fishing. That happened near the territorial waters of Guatemala, and Mr. Watson claims that he was instructed by Guatemalan authorities to detain the Tico fishermen, which he did. After the ramming and subsequent towing of the boat, Guatemalan authorities told Mr. Watson on radio that he would be arrested for his conduct in the high seas, so he instead released the Tico boat and changed course to Costa Rica in order to avoid arrest. Once Mr. Watson arrived in Puntarenas, it took some time before the local prosecutor ordered a ship arrest while an investigation was conducted. The Farley Mowat was freed on a bond of $850, and Mr. Watson’s attorney advised him to sail away and flee Costa Rica while he could. He subsequently fled Germany.

The preamble of the online petition, which is posted at Avaaz.org, reads as follows:

The greedy interests of the very few who enrich themselves ravaging the life seas have turned his main defender, captain Paul Watson, a fugitive from the supposed “justice”. They are using no other than the courts of the country that boasts itself as “environmentalist”, which chase him for nearly thirteen years with a judicial cause invented by illegal shark fishermen and supported by illegal fishing mafias who kill marine wildlife in cold blood and without restrictions. It’s time to say “ENOUGH” to such injustice!

Sign Petition Here: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Fiscalia_CR_Liberemos_a_Paul_Watson_de_la_persecucion_de_las_Mafias_de_la_Pesca_Ilegal/edit