Spanish court weighs US bid to extradite wealthy activist over Hamas allegations

Spain's high court heard two hours of arguments on Friday over a US request to extradite James "Fergie" Chambers, a wealthy leftwing activist and philanthropist, in what is believed to be the first case of Washington seeking to extradite an American citizen over alleged support for Hamas.

The defense used most of the session to question Chambers and detail what it described as irregularities in the Trump administration's request, while prosecutor Juan Hernández Villalba sped through his case without asking Chambers a single question. Notably, neither the judges nor the prosecutor pressed him on the request's insinuation that he had supported Hamas, an accusation apparently tied to an international money laundering charge and donations to organizations helping Palestinians in Gaza.

The hearing was the first time Chambers has spoken publicly since his arrest in Ibiza on 10 July. He addressed the events at the center of the case: 2023 protests against Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and 2024 transfers of $7.2m to Tunisia, where he was living at the time. A financial expert backed his account of the transfers.

Chambers, a self-described communist and anti-imperialist, told the court he sold stock back to his family's Atlanta-based business, Cox Enterprises, for about $250m in mid-2023, then started a foundation. He said he and its three-member board vet projects to ensure none are under US sanctions. According to his partner, activist and actor Stella Schnabel, the foundation has funded an estimated 100 progressive and humanitarian projects in 20 countries, including Gaza organizations working on, in Chambers's words, "medical treatment for children, transportation out of dangerous areas and clean water and food".

Two of the request's three charges, riot and conspiracy to riot, stem from the late 2023 Elbit protests. Chambers described locking himself to a door, marching in the street and, in New Hampshire, standing in the road, speaking to the media and paying bail for four protesters who were later found guilty of misdemeanors and served 30 days in jail.

On the money, the defense and financial expert Albert Deulofeu Schilt laid out how ten bank transfers from the US to Tunisia mostly went to sponsor Club Africain, described by Chambers as "one of the largest football clubs in Africa", and a sporting business he launched there. Asked by defense attorney Aitor Martínez whether there was any indication the funds went to support terrorist activities, Deulofeu Schilt answered: "None."

In about 15 minutes of rapid-fire delivery, Hernández Villalba painted a wholly different picture of Chambers as backing "an organized structure" aimed at repeatedly committing illegal acts "together with funds destined for terrorist organizations". The extradition petition, he said, "isn't based on ideology or political statements, but on actions [Chambers] organized, financed and carried out, causing material damage", arguing there were "more than enough indications" the funding was aimed at terrorism.

Among the 100-plus people following the hearing on the court's YouTube channel was Irish filmmaker and journalist Sinéad O'Shea, whose documentary about Chambers, All About the Money, makes its New York premiere this weekend and covers the period cited in the FBI affidavit underpinning the request. "It is impossible not to see this as a politically motivated case," she said. Chambers's views have been extensively profiled in US media; a week after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, he posted on X that "no faction of the Palestinian resistance, Hamas or other, has done *anything* wrong", calling Israel's response "simply genocide".

Given the last word, Chambers, dressed in dark jeans, a grey-blue shirt and a black jacket, said he could not understand why he had been in prison since July "for what amounts to speaking emotionally and committing minor offenses of public disturbance". "I've never had any contact with any terrorist organization. I've certainly never financed any terrorist organization," he said, adding that his family had been "torn apart", that he missed his grandmother's funeral last week and that his wife is due to give birth in March.

The three-judge panel will decide next week whether to extradite Chambers. If it rules in favor, Spain's council of ministers can still reverse the decision, meaning the case could be among the last made under socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez before national elections on 29 November.