US extradition bid over Hamas allegations heard at Spanish high court
James "Fergie" Chambers, a Cox Enterprises heir, faced a two-hour hearing in Madrid over alleged Hamas support. A ruling is expected next week.
Cox Enterprises heir faces Spanish judges over Hamas funding allegations
A two-hour session at Spain's high court on Friday examined the US extradition request for James "Fergie" Chambers, a wealthy leftwing activist and philanthropist, theguardian.com reports. Chambers, an heir to Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises, has been held since his arrest in Ibiza on 10 July and faces charges tied to alleged support for Hamas — the first known instance of the US seeking to extradite a citizen on such grounds.
The hearing produced a striking imbalance in courtroom dynamics. Chambers's defence team occupied most of the session questioning him directly and setting out procedural irregularities in the Trump administration's extradition request, several of which the Guardian had previously reported. Prosecutor Juan Hernández Villalba, by contrast, completed his submission in roughly 15 minutes of rapid-fire monotone and asked Chambers no questions.
Neither the three-judge panel nor the prosecutor pressed Chambers to address the core allegation: that he had materially supported Hamas. The accusation appears linked to an international money laundering charge and donations to organisations assisting Palestinians in Gaza.
Protests, money transfers and a football club
Friday's session gave Chambers his first public platform since July to describe the events at the heart of the case. These centre on 2023 protests against Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems at sites in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and on $7.2m transferred to Tunisia in 2024, where Chambers was living at the time.
On the protests, Chambers described locking himself to a door, marching in the street, standing in a road in New Hampshire, speaking to media and paying bail for four demonstrators who were subsequently convicted of misdemeanour charges and served 30 days in jail. Two of the three charges in the extradition request — riot and conspiracy to riot — relate to these demonstrations.
Regarding the transfers, the defence called financial expert Albert Deulofeu Schilt, who testified that the ten bank transactions from the US to Tunisia were primarily directed at sponsoring Club Africain — described by Chambers as "one of the largest football clubs in Africa" — and a sporting business he had launched while resident there. Defence attorney Aitor Martínez asked whether any of the money showed signs of financing terrorist activity. "None," Deulofeu Schilt replied.
A self-described communist with a $250m share sale
The hearing opened with the defence establishing Chambers's financial background. A self-described communist and anti-imperialist, Chambers sold stock back to Cox Enterprises worth approximately $250m in mid-2023. He subsequently established a foundation governed by a three-member board, which he said screens all grant recipients against US sanctions lists.
According to his partner, activist and actor Stella Schnabel, the foundation has funded around 100 progressive and humanitarian projects across 20 countries. Chambers told the court these included organisations in Gaza working on "medical treatment for children, transportation out of dangerous areas and clean water and food".
He also noted, in apparent rebuttal of the portrait drawn by the extradition request, that his family's next-door neighbour in Tunis was the US ambassador.
Prosecutor: an organised structure aimed at terrorism
Hernández Villalba rejected the defence's account as deliberately fragmented. "What's most relevant is an evaluation of the whole picture," he said, arguing that Chambers had backed "an organised structure … aimed at repeatedly committing illegal acts … together with funds destined for terrorist organisations."
The Elbit protests, the prosecutor contended, were "presented as a simple protest" but had in fact been "planned for days … with objectively violent content." He concluded that the evidence provided "more than enough indications" that Chambers's funding "was aimed at terrorism." The extradition petition, Hernández Villalba asserted, "isn't based on ideology or political statements, but on actions [Chambers] organised, financed and carried out, causing material damage."
Documentary and political context
Among the more than 100 people following proceedings via the court's YouTube stream was Irish film-maker and journalist Sinéad O'Shea, whose documentary All About the Money — covering the period cited in the FBI affidavit underpinning the US request — makes its New York premiere this weekend.
O'Shea described the extradition case as constructing "a false narrative which begins with the protest in New Hampshire — a piece of vandalism at worst and for which people ended up serving 30 days." She added: "I saw myself the football club in which he invested in Tunisia and his donations to Palestinian and other charities are a matter of public record. It is impossible not to see this as a politically motivated case."
Chambers's views have been extensively covered in US media. A week after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, 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."
Ruling expected next week, with political dimension
The three-judge panel is expected to deliver its decision next week. If the court approves extradition, Spain's council of ministers retains the power to reverse that ruling — meaning the final word may rest with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's socialist government ahead of national elections on 29 November.
Chambers had the final word at Friday's hearing. "To this day I cannot understand why I have been in prison since July," he told the court.
Source: Google News IE — Crime (en)