Spain Faces Mounting Pressure to Reject US Extradition Bid for James ‘Fergie’ Chambers

Lawyers representing James “Fergie” Chambers, a US citizen and prominent donor to left-wing and humanitarian causes around the world, have filed a legal brief ahead of a decisive Spanish government meeting over his requested extradition.

Chambers’ partner, the actor and activist Stella Schnabel, met members of parliament last week to argue that the allegations against him are unfounded.

His legal team contends that the US government has failed to identify specific acts of violence or property damage that can be attributed personally to Chambers. Instead, it argues, Washington is attempting to criminalize conduct associated with political protest.

The brief also maintains that at least one US legal basis cited in the extradition request — “conspiracy to commit riot” — has no equivalent in Spanish law, potentially making the request invalid.

The case is believed to be the first in which the US has sought the extradition of a citizen over alleged support for Hamas.

Chambers’ lawyers submitted their brief ahead of a meeting by Spain’s 22-member council of ministers, expected on 22 September. The council can decide whether the US request should proceed, partly after reviewing supporting material supplied by the Trump administration on 26 August.

At this administrative stage, Spanish law gives the council authority to reject the request before the case moves to a judicial phase.

The US case alleges that Chambers moved $7.5m from a US bank account to Tunisia, where he was living, and that the funds were subsequently laundered and used to support Hamas. The full indictment remains sealed.

Chambers’ legal team says the money supported humanitarian aid and other projects. The 41-year-old, who describes himself as an anti-imperialist, also disputes the additional charge of international money laundering, arguing that he obtained his personal wealth lawfully as the heir to one of America’s wealthiest families. He says his donations have supported roughly 100 initiatives in 20 countries over several years, including the Sameer Project in Gaza.

“It would set an alarming precedent in all of Europe if Spain allowed the Trump administration to criminalize offering vital humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people and defending their rights,” said Baltasar Garzón, a respected human rights lawyer and member of Chambers’ legal team.

“That’s what Fergie has financed: humanitarian aid and support for people in a situation of great need,” Garzón said. “That’s not terrorism, according to Spanish and European legal standards.”

Schnabel has met with members of Sumar and Podemos, progressive movements that are important to prime minister Pedro Sánchez’s governing coalition. She has also sent Sánchez a one-page letter urging him to take “the only morally acceptable decision”: rejecting the extradition request. Sánchez sits on the council of ministers.

Schnabel has faced close scrutiny since Chambers was detained in Ibiza on 10 July. She said that during a recent trip to New York, FBI agents stopped her at JFK airport and confiscated her phone.

Support for Chambers ahead of the 20 September meeting has also come from Ione Bellara, the leader of Podemos. Bellara opened the party’s quarterly meeting last Saturday with a statement opposing the extradition request and describing Chambers as “on the right side of history” because of his financial support for Palestinians in Gaza.

Sumar, the left-wing coalition governing alongside Sánchez’s Socialist party, similarly submitted a statement to Spain’s congress urging the government to reject the petition. It said the request appeared designed “to criminalize, persecute or punish [Chambers] due to his political opinions, his public activity or his participation in political movements — in this case, in support of the Palestinian people”.

Irene Montero, a member of Podemos and Spain’s representative to the European parliament, told the Guardian that “Our laws don’t contemplate the actions he is accused of … [and] we can’t become a subject of the United States.”

Activists have organized rallies in recent days in at least six Spanish cities, with further demonstrations planned.

Support has also emerged internationally. A petition delivered to the Spanish government has been signed by actors, academics, activists and others, including Richard Gere, Greta Thunberg and Angela Davis. In Tunisia, supporters of Club Africain displayed banners and T-shirts reading “Free Fergie” at a recent match. At Festa do Avante, one of Portugal’s largest cultural festivals, attendees held up a banner that said: “Free Fergie – supporting Palestine isn’t a crime.”

Schnabel told the Guardian last month that the $7.5m was intended to support Club Africain. Hamed Mbarek, a club supporter and organizer of fans at the recent match, described the team as “pro-Palestine” and said Chambers and the club shared a “synchronicity”.

Chambers’ wealth includes proceeds from a mid-2023 settlement with his family, the owners of Atlanta-based Cox Communications. Under the agreement, he sold roughly $250m of stock back to his family, at which point some family members reportedly severed contact with him.

His political views and donations have received extensive coverage in US media. In late 2023, he was interviewed by a television news station in New Hampshire about a direct action targeting Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense contractor, for which he paid legal fees. Palestine Action, the group involved, has since been banned in the UK as a “terrorist organization”.

Chambers’ public comments about Israel and Gaza have also sparked controversy. A week after Hamas’s attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, he posted on X: “Stop calling it ‘collective punishment’/ There’s nothing to be ‘punished’ for/ No faction of the Palestinian resistance, Hamas or other, has done anything wrong/ It’s simply genocide/ Like it has been.”

He has also been a vocal critic of the US, telling a reporter in 2024: “I think the most important thing for the prosperity of humanity is the destruction of the US.”

Irene Zugasti helped organize rallies in Madrid, Barcelona and several other Spanish cities earlier this week and last weekend. She sees the case as extending beyond Chambers’ fate. “If they go after Fergie, they’ll go after anyone … It’s a test — to see until what point European governments feel pressure from the United States.”

Source link