Spain clears way for US extradition case against millionaire activist

(CNN) — The Spanish cabinet has allowed a US extradition request for James “Fergie” Chambers, an American millionaire and Gaza donor, to proceed to Spanish courts in a decision that his lawyers warn will set a “dangerous precedent” for the defense of the Palestinian cause in Europe.

The Council of Ministers’ decision clears the way for the case to move into its judicial phase, a stage that brings Chambers’ potential extradition one step closer.

On July 10, Spanish officers in unmarked police vehicles arrested Chambers on the Spanish island of Ibiza as he and his partner drove with their son to look at schools.

His arrest followed the issuance of an Interpol Red Notice at the request of the United States, according to his lawyer, Baltasar Garzón.

Chambers, 41, is an heir to a slice of the Cox Media fortune who cashed out three years ago for a reported $250 million.

He’s long been a supporter of Palestinian human rights. Spain’s current government too has been a fierce critic of how Israel has prosecuted its war in Gaza – calling it a genocide, imposing an arms embargo and recognising the state of Palestine, leading to rocky relations with the United States.

Chambers’ critics point to his online support for the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, as well as his anti-American rhetoric – including calling the US the “Great Satan.”

He has been held since his arrest at the Aranjuez prison near Madrid and has lodged an asylum claim in Spain.

The indictment against Chambers is sealed, but his lawyer tells CNN that US prosecutors have charged him with money laundering – including transferring more than $7.5 million to a Tunisian football team – and with riot and conspiracy to riot, tied to 2023 protests at an Israeli arms manufacturer’s US facilities in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Chambers’ lawyers say the charges are politically motivated.

“We must respect the decision of the Council of Ministers. However, it sets a dangerous precedent regarding the defense of the Palestinian cause,” Garzón said in a statement shared with CNN following the cabinet’s decision Tuesday. Garzón previously represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange alongside Chambers’ US attorney, Barry Pollack.

“Spain cannot defend international law, the rights of the Palestinian people and 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,” Garzón added.

Garzón said Chambers has given much of his fortune away to humanitarian projects in Gaza, including a bakery, a community kitchen, mobile clinics and reconstructive surgery for children wounded in the war.

Garzón said the Tunisia transfer, made while Chambers was living there, paid off a struggling football club’s debt and covered salaries, plus personal expenses, which he argued isn’t money laundering under Spanish law since the funds weren’t illegally sourced.

Four people who took part in the New Hampshire protest were sentenced to 60 days each in prison, while Chambers faces up to five years if convicted of riot and conspiracy to riot over the same episode. Garzón contends that his client wasn’t even in Massachusetts when the protest took place, but was in Atlanta, Georgia.

The lawyer cited the Trump administration’s 2025 ICC-related sanctions measures and a broader NGO-funding memo, alongside Human Rights Watch reporting on US sanctions imposed later that year on several Palestinian rights groups, as context for his claim of political persecution of his client.

Relations between the Trump administration and the government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez have been tense in recent months, with US President Donald Trump critical of Sánchez’s opposition to the war in Iran and of the country’s handling of immigration.

The left-wing Sumar coalition, part of Spain’s governing alliance, had urged the government to block the extradition. “The extradition amounts to the criminalization of solidarity with Palestine,” said Enrique Santiago, Sumar’s deputy parliamentary spokesperson.

Ione Belarra, a member of Spain’s Congress of Deputies and secretary-general of the left-wing Podemos party, called Chambers “the first political prisoner in Spanish history being imprisoned because of his support for Palestine.”

“The government has done what it is required to do at this stage, something that is purely procedural,” said government spokesperson Elma Saiz, who added that Chambers will have “all the necessary safeguards” during the National Court’s review of the extradition request.

“We must now let the National Court and Mr. Chambers’ defense team do their work, and once the National Court’s ruling is known, with all the arguments on the table, a final decision will be made,” Saiz added.

CNN has reached out to the US Department of Justice for comment.

Chambers’ partner, US actress Stella Schnabel, is three months pregnant with their second child.

“Fergie could spend the first year of our child’s life unable to hold them, seeing them only through a pane of glass, despite not being convicted of any crime,” she said in a written statement provided to CNN.

“Fergie should be with me and our children, continuing his philanthropy, not sitting in a prison cell because of it.”

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