Japan had asked Denmark to extradite Watson, who had been in custody in Greenland since his arrest this summer.

Danish Ministry of Justice announces Watson will not be extradited to Japan, which could have landed the Sea Shepard founder 15 years in prison.

Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson was released from detention in Greenland, his attorney said on Tuesday. Watson, who had been held in the autonomous territory of Denmark for five months, was set free after Danish authorities chose to reject requests to extradite Watson to Japan where he faces a 12-year-old warrant issued for a 2010 incident involving a Japanese whaling ship.