Spain allows US extradition case against Palestine aid donor who had been living in Dublin

The Spanish government has decided to allow the Trump administration’s controversial extradition request to extradite wealthy activist James “Fergie” Chambers to continue in the country’s courts.The self-described “professional revolutionary” and the heir of one of the richest families in the US, lived in Dublin in the past year.He was arrested on the island of Ibiza on July 10th, following a request from the United States, according to the Audiencia Nacional, Spain’s high court.Chambers, a US citizen and wealthy donor to leftwing and humanitarian projects, is imprisoned in Madrid. READ MOREIt is the first known case of the US seeking to extradite a citizen over alleged support for Hamas, an accusation tied to money Chambers has donated to support Palestinians, including the Sameer Project, in Gaza.Chambers left the US in 2023, briefly moving to Tunisia, where he funded a football team, before settling in Dublin with his family.His movements and activism in the past three years are the subject of a documentary directed by an Irish film-maker that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January.His legal defence team, an array of Spanish parliamentarians, and some celebrity supporters have publicly opposed the extradition request, calling it political persecution, which would render it illegitimate under Spanish law.The 22-member council of ministers could have rejected the US petition outright on Tuesday but instead opted to remand the request to the Spanish justice system, beginning a legal process that could now take months.Meanwhile, Chambers has begun the process from prison of applying for asylum in Spain – which by law makes it impossible for the country to extradite him until the process is concluded, according to attorney Aitor Martínez, part of Chambers’s legal team.The attorney also told the Guardian that a third request to allow his client to be released on bond while his situation is resolved awaits a judge’s decision, after previous requests have been denied since Spanish police detained him in Ibiza on July 10th.Elma Saiz, minister of inclusion, social security and migration, devoted less than a minute to announcing Tuesday’s council decision to the Spanish press, calling it “purely procedural”.[ Fergie Chambers: The Dublin-based communist millionaire in the Trump administration’s crosshairsOpens in new window ][ Millionaire US pro-Palestinian donor arrested over Hamas funding allegations lived in IrelandOpens in new window ]Details from the weekly meetings are not public, but sources close to the council told the Guardian: “There was debate, and five ministers from Sumar – including the vice-president – pushed back in the meeting.” Sumar, a leftwing coalition, governs jointly with Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party.Sánchez’s government has repeatedly expressed support for the Palestinian people, putting him at odds with the Trump administration.Baltasar Garzón, the international human rights lawyer leading Chambers’s legal team, said that Tuesday’s decision “sets a dangerous precedent regarding the defence of the Palestinian cause”.“Spain cannot defend international law, the rights of the Palestinian people and the protection of those who provide humanitarian aid while at the same time allowing a request to proceed with an extradition that shows clear signs of political persecution by the US government, as it is directed against an individual because of his political activity and solidarity with Palestine.”Ione Belarra, secretary general of Podemos – a progressive party also vital to Sánchez’s interests – said the government “has chosen to keep [Chambers] imprisoned by giving the green light for Trump’s political persecution to proceed to the courts”. Belarra appeared in Parliament on Tuesday afternoon wearing a T-shirt that said Free Fergie.Who is Fergie Chambers? The Dublin-based millionaire wanted by US authorities For more than a year, Fergie Chambers, an American multi-millionaire and self-described communist, has called Ireland home. The 41-year-old who is heir to one of the richest families in America had been living in South Dublin, until a trip to Ibiza with his family last month ended in his arrest. While on the Spanish Island, police arrested Chambers on foot of an extradition request by US authorities. He’s been in prison in Madrid ever since. If the extradition goes ahead, he faces charges of money laundering with the intent of supporting terror organisations; riot; and conspiracy to riot. Friends of Chambers say he’s being targeted because of his support for Palestinian activism. They point to donations to humanitarian organisations working in Gaza and his funding of legal fees for protesters associated with Palestine Action in the UK. But who is Fergie Chambers, what does he stand for and why has he become a target of the Maga movement? And could his case further strain relations between the US, Spain and Ireland over Palestine? Aideen Finnegan is joined by Irish Times journalists Rachel Lavin and Naomi O'Leary. She also noted that Spain must hold a general election by August, and said many of her colleagues in Spain’s Congress “are deeply concerned that by the time Fergie Chambers’s case has gone through the judicial process ... Spain could have a more conservative, pro-Israel government”.The possibility of Chambers being extradited “risks opening the floodgates to Trump’s repression reaching into Spain and the rest of Europe and targeting other progressives”, Belarra said.The US government’s case centres on Chambers allegedly laundering $7.5m he wired several years ago from a US bank account to Tunisia, where he lived at the time, and allegedly using the money to support Hamas.His partner, activist and actor Stella Schnabel, told the Guardian last month that the $7.5m went to support Club Africain, a Tunisian football club, paying off debt and past-due salaries as well as rebuilding a training centre and building youth football fields.The self-described anti–imperialist’s defence is also asserting that the Trump administration’s charges of “international money laundering” do not hold up because, as heir to one of the richest families in the US, he obtained his personal wealth through legal means.His money comes from a mid-2023 settlement with his family, owners of Atlanta-based Cox Communications, in which he sold them stock worth about $250m. Members of his family severed contact with him at the time and his donations have gone to about 100 projects in 20 countries.Chambers’s views and donations have been extensively profiled in US media. He was interviewed on a TV news station in New Hampshire in late 2023 about a direct action against Elbit Systems, an Israeli defence contractor, staged by a group whose legal fees he paid, then called Palestine Action – a group now proscribed in the UK as a “terrorist organisation”.Sealed charges against Chambers were originally filed in New Hampshire.Chambers’s public comments on Israel and Gaza have previously brought controversy. A week after the October 7th, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, he posted on X about Israel’s response: “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 staunch 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.”“I am heartbroken,” Schnabel told the Guardian. The two have a young son and Schnabel is just over three months pregnant. “Fergie could spend the first year of our baby’s life unable to hold them, seeing them only through a pane of glass – even though he has not been convicted of any crime,” she said.