Spanish court hears US extradition bid for activist James Chambers

According to The Guardian, Spain’s high court held a two-hour hearing on Friday over a United States request to extradite James “Fergie” Chambers. The wealthy leftwing activist and philanthropist was arrested in Ibiza on 10 July. The three-judge panel will decide next week whether to grant the request.

The hearing was marked by a clear contrast. Chambers’s defence spent most of the session questioning him and challenging the US request, while the prosecutor spoke briefly and asked him no questions. Neither the judges nor the prosecutor asked him about the claim that he had supported Hamas.

The case against Chambers

The US extradition request says Chambers backed Hamas. The allegation is tied to an international money laundering charge and to donations to groups helping Palestinians in Gaza. According to The Guardian, this marks the first known time American authorities have sought to bring back a national on accusations of backing Hamas.

Two of the three charges, riot and conspiracy to riot, relate to protests in late 2023 against the Israeli weapons maker Elbit. Those protests took place in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The third element concerns transfers of $7.2m to Tunisia in 2024, when Chambers lived there.

The defence account

Chambers said he had locked himself to a door and marched in the street during the Elbit protests. In New Hampshire, he stood in the road and paid bail for four protesters, who were later found guilty of misdemeanour charges and served 30 days in jail.

A financial expert told the court that ten bank transfers from the US to Tunisia mostly paid for sponsoring the football club Club Africain and a sporting business Chambers started there. Defence attorney Aitor Martínez asked whether the money had supported terrorist activity. The expert answered that there was none.

• Chambers said he sold stock worth about $250m to his family’s business in mid-2023
• He said his foundation has funded an estimated 100 projects in 20 countries, according to his partner, Stella Schnabel

The prosecutor’s position

Prosecutor Juan Hernández Villalba described Chambers as backing an organised structure that repeatedly committed illegal acts, alongside funds meant for terrorist groups. He argued that the court should judge the case as a whole rather than in fragments. He said the request concerned actions, not ideas, and that the protest activity described by the US had been planned for days.

The prosecutor said there were more than enough indications that Chambers’s funding was aimed at terrorism. The defence has rejected that view.

Political timing and wider context

If the court approves extradition, Spain’s council of ministers has the power to reverse that decision. The process could therefore run close to national elections on 29 November, which Pedro Sánchez’s government faces as the country’s socialist prime minister.

Irish film-maker Sinéad O’Shea, who followed the hearing online, has made a documentary about Chambers. She said the case appeared politically motivated. That is her opinion, not a finding of the court. Chambers closed by saying he had never financed a terrorist group and that his family had been affected by his time in prison.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• The Guardian: How a US extradition bid over Hamas allegations put a wealthy activist before a Spanish court

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