November 11, 2023

Captain Paul Watson and Lamya Essemlali vs Alex Cornelissen, Peter Hammarstedt, Geert Vons and Jeff Hansen.\

BACKGROUND

In 2013, in response to the Japanese filing a lawsuit against Sea Shepherd USA, Sea Shepherd Global was established to manage ships and campaigns. Not to manage Sea Shepherd national entities because Sea Shepherd was a movement and not an organization. The Global Board was set up with 6 directors. The 6 directors were Captain Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd France President Lamya Essemlali, Geert Vons of Sea Shepherd Netherlands, Peter Hammarstedt, a director for Sea Shepherd Australia and finally Alex Cornelissen of Sea Shepherd Netherlands who was appointed CEO of the Global Board by Captain Watson.

Sea Shepherd Global was never meant to control the other groups. Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland etc., were not represented on the Global Board because the Global Board was never meant to control the other groups. The national entities would donate funds to ship operations through Sea Shepherd Global. Sea Shepherd France donated nine million Euros to Global for example.

At the time Sea Shepherd Global was established, Alex Cornelissen made this declaration: see  Picture and Quote below.

In 2022, Alex and Peter began to make decisions without consultation with directors Essemlali and Watson.

THE PRIMARY LEGAL ISSUE

On August 8th, 2022, Alex Cornelissen, Peter Hammarsted, Geert Vons and Jeff Hansen attended a secret meeting where Paul Watson and Lamya Essemlali were not invited, and were also not informed it was taking place. At that meeting they voted to dismiss Paul Watson. Both Lamya and Paul were unaware of this meeting until their appearance in the Amsterdam Court on November 8th, 2023.

On August 28th, 2022, Alex Cornelissen contacted Lamya Essemlali to inform her that they were going to inform Paul Watson that he would be dismissed. They did not tell her about the meeting where they had already decided on the dismissal. They did not give her an explanation. Alex asked Lamya for her opinion. She said she would be opposed to a dismissal. Alex informed her that it did not matter because he had the other four votes, and her vote would not be required. He did not tell her they had already voted and made the decision to dismiss Captain Watson. 

On September 2nd, 2022, Paul Watson received an e-mail dismissing him from the Global Board without any reason or explanation given. 

A few months later, Lamya Essemlali was dismissed from the Global Board without a notification of a meeting, without a discussion or a vote.

Since the day of Paul Watson’s dismissal, all communications were cut off by the four directors. All proposals by Essemlali and Watson to meet and discuss the situation with any of the four other directors were refused or ignored. The first opportunity to confront the four directors was in the Amsterdam court on November 8th. 

Since the dismissal of Watson, many of the national entities surrendered to the Four Global Directors, with the exception of Sea Shepherd France, Brazil, Hungary and the U.K. Sea Shepherd UK was threatened with a lawsuit by the Global directors and decided to change their name to the Captain Paul Watson Foundation UK. 

When the four directors threatened Sea Shepherd France, they initiated a lawsuit against Sea Shepherd France demanding that Sea Shepherd France has no right to the Sea Shepherd name and logos that Captain Watson originally created. Sea Shepherd France decided to defend against this legal assault and the case will be heard in a French court in January 2024. If these four men prevail, the entire Sea Shepherd movement will effectively come under their total control and all decisions will be made by them including all ships and campaigns.

IN COURT (November 8th, 2023)

The lawyer for Alex, Peter, Geert and Jeff said: There is nothing to gain for Paul Watson, Lamya Essemlali from this complaint. If the court rules that their dismissal was unlawful and that they should be reinstated, all my clients will have to do is to call a lawful meeting and the four directors can vote and legally dismiss Watson and Essemlali. They will simply be dismissed again from the Global Board. This is a useless request and a waste of the court’s time.

Judge to Captain Watson: Why do you want to be reinstated to this Board if they can simply call a new meeting and dismiss you again?

Paul Watson: We were dismissed without a legal meeting, a proper discussion, and a legal vote. We want a legal meeting and an invitation so that Lamya Essemlali and I can ask the reasons for this dismissal, where we can ask why the Board decisions were made without the knowledge of two of the six directors. We want a democratic and transparent meeting so that every Sea Shepherd supporter worldwide will be aware of the reasons these four directors want to dismiss Lamya and I. Yes, they can dismiss us, but the reasons for our dismissal will be made public. The entire course of the Sea Shepherd movement was changed without informing global supporters. We want to know just how many secret meetings they had that we were not aware of. For example, they hired a very expensive Israeli security firm without our knowledge when we were directors. We were not made aware of this decision until long after we were dismissed from the Global Board. Our supporters have a right to know why.”

Judge to Lamya Essemlali: Why do you want to be reinstated?

Lamya Essemlali: We need to know what these four men did to this movement behind closed doors. As directors, it is our legal and moral duty to find out the truth and to fix what needs to be fixed, for the thousands of supporters, donors and crew who believe that they are joining and supporting the original Sea Shepherd, when in fact, these four men have compromised and diminished it.

The lawyer for Sea Shepherd France asked Alex about the statement he made in 2013 when Paul Watson appointed him as CEO of Sea Shepherd Global. That was when Alex swore his loyalty to Paul Watson and all that Sea Shepherd stood for.

Alex’s lawyer replied: This was a long time ago; things have changed since then. 

Alex should be obligated to explain what this means to the global Sea Shepherd support base that Sea Shepherd is no longer a movement, no longer following the original vision.

The Judge asked Peter Hammarstedt if he had anything to say: Peter replied, If I may your honor, just two days ago Mr. Watson called me a coward and said I would not attend this hearing.

Not exactly an explanation of the secret meeting or the unlawful dismissal but he did demonstrate that Captain Watson was wrong about not being too cowardly to attend. However, it was noted that he avoided eye contact with Captain Watson and Lamya Essemlali. 

The judge asked Paul Watson if he had any final words; These four men orchestrated a hostile takeover of something they did not create. I put these four men in their positions, I made two of them captains and after twenty years, they did not have the decency or the respect to tell me why they decided to dismiss me with an e-mail without an explanation. They are destroying a movement for their own personal control of something that should not belong to anyone. They should be ashamed of themselves.

The Judge has scheduled December 20th to deliver his decision on the case.

It is the hope of both Watson and Essemlali that the Judge will reinstate both directors considering their dismissal was unlawful. 

In January 2024, Paul Watson and Lamya Essemlali will continue the fight against these four men in a French Court. 

Sea Shepherd was established by Captain Paul Watson as a movement and a movement cannot and must not be controlled by anyone. Captain Watson never controlled Sea Shepherd nor should anyone else.

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