James “Fergie” Chambers appeared before Spain’s high court on Friday as judges weighed a United States extradition request tying the left-wing activist to Hamas allegations, testing international legal boundaries.
The two-hour hearing in Madrid offered a study in sharply contrasting legal strategies. Chambers’s defense spent the majority of the session detailing irregularities in the US extradition request and outlining provisions of Spanish law that could lead the three-judge panel to deny it, according to reporting by The Guardian.
Meanwhile, prosecutor sped through his case with his head down, asking Chambers no questions at all. Neither the judges nor the prosecutor asked Chambers to address the insinuation in the extradition request that the wealthy philanthropist had supported Hamas.
The case marks the first known instance of the United States seeking to extradite a citizen over alleged support for Hamas. The accusation appears tied to an international money laundering charge and donations directed toward organizations helping Palestinians in Gaza.
Friday’s hearing allowed Chambers to speak publicly for the first time since his July 10 arrest in Ibiza. He addressed the events at the center of the US case, which include 2023 protests against Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, alongside 2024 financial transfers totaling $7.2m to Tunisia, where he lived at the time.
Chambers' Attorneys Claim Translation Changes Created Malicious Accusations
Attorneys for Chambers accused the Trump administration of making malicious and bad faith changes to legally required translations from English to Spanish in its extradition request, according to inkl. The legal team identified multiple instances where terms like “violent”, “detonate”, and “fires” were added to the Spanish text even though they did not appear in the original English document.
The defense team also pointed out that the US translation created more serious legal accusations regarding his alleged role in paying legal fees for activists who participated in the Elbit Systems protests. Two of the three charges in the request—riot and conspiracy to riot—stem directly from those late-2023 demonstrations.
Chambers detailed his participation in the protests, which involved locking himself to a door, marching in the street, and speaking to the media in New Hampshire while paying bail for four protesters. Those individuals were eventually found guilty of misdemeanor charges and served 30 days in jail.
Regarding the $7.2m transferred to Tunisia, a financial expert testified that ten bank transfers from the US mostly went toward sponsoring Club Africain, which Chambers described as one of the largest football clubs in Africa, as well as a sporting business Chambers launched while residing in Tunis.
When defense attorney Aitor Martínez asked if there was any indication that the money went toward supporting terrorist activities, the defense and a financial expert serving as a witness laid out how the transfers were made.
Prosecution Alleges Organized Financing
In contrast, the prosecutor delivered a case outlining a very different picture of Chambers. He accused the defense of presenting facts in a fragmented way.
“Nevertheless, the actions described by the US were planned for days … with objectively violent content.” Given all this, the prosecutor said, “there are more than enough indications to consider … that [Chambers’s] funding was aimed at terrorism”.
Chambers sold stock back to his family’s business, Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises, for about $250m in mid-2023. He subsequently established a foundation that has funded an estimated 100 progressive and humanitarian projects in 20 countries, according to his partner, Stella Schnabel.
Gaza as the Moral Question of Our Time
During the proceedings, Chambers told the court that he supported humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza because Israel’s response had become “the prevailing moral question of our time”. He explained that his funding toward Palestinian groups increased in 2023/2024 to support medical treatment for children, transportation out of dangerous areas, and clean water and food.
Irish filmmaker Sinéad O’Shea, whose documentary All About the Money covers the time period cited by the FBI affidavit, watched the proceedings remotely. She said that the extradition case builds a false narrative starting from the New Hampshire protest.
Dressed in dark jeans, a grey-blue shirt, and a black jacket, Chambers addressed the court directly at the close of the hearing.
“To this day I cannot understand why I have been in prison since July for what amounts to speaking emotionally and committing minor offenses of public disturbance,” Chambers said.
“I’ve never had any contact with any terrorist organization. I’ve certainly never financed any terrorist organization … and for this my family has been torn apart. I missed my grandmother’s funeral last week. My five-year-old son asks where I am every day. And my wife will give birth, God willing, in March – and I don’t know if I will be by her side,” Chambers said.
Court Decides on Extradition Before National Elections
The court will decide next week on extraditing Chambers. If the decision is affirmative, Spain’s council of ministers can reverse the court’s decision.
This means Chambers’s extradition may be among the last decisions made under Pedro Sánchez, the socialist prime minister, before national elections on 29 November.
“All I’m asking for is justice, reason and mercy,” Chambers told the court.
