Spain’s cabinet has given permission for billionaire American billionaire and Gaza donor James “Fergie” Chambers to take his extradition request to the United States in a Spanish court, but his lawyers warned it would set a “dangerous precedent” for defending the Palestinian cause in Europe.
The Council of Ministers’ decision paves the way for the case to move to the judicial stage and brings Mr Chambers a step closer to potentially being extradited.
On July 10, Spanish police officers in an unmarked police vehicle arrested Mr Chambers on the Spanish island of Ibiza as he and his partner were driving to inspect a school.
His lawyer, Baltasar Garzón, said his arrest followed the issuance of an Interpol Red Notice at the request of the United States.
Chambers, 41, is the heir to a portion of the Cox Media fortune that he cashed out for $250 million three years ago.
He has long supported human rights for Palestinians. Spain’s current government has also fiercely criticized Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, calling it genocide, imposing an arms embargo and recognizing a Palestinian state, leading to unstable relations with the United States.
Chambers’ critics point out that he has supported the Hamas-led October 7 attacks online and has made anti-American statements, including calling the United States “the great devil.”
He has been held in Aranjuez prison near Madrid since his arrest and has applied for asylum in Spain.
The charges against Chambers have been sealed, but his lawyer told CNN that U.S. prosecutors have charged him with money laundering, including the transfer of more than $7.5 million to a Tunisian soccer team, and conspiracy to commit rioting and rioting in connection with 2023 protests at an Israeli arms manufacturing company’s U.S. facilities in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Mr. Chambers’ lawyer maintains the charges are politically motivated.
“We must respect the decision of the Council of Ministers. However, this sets a dangerous precedent when it comes to defending the Palestinian cause,” Garzon said in a statement shared with CNN following Tuesday’s cabinet decision. Garson previously represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, along with Chambers’ U.S. attorney Barry Pollack.
“Spain cannot defend international law, the rights of the Palestinian people and those providing humanitarian assistance, and at the same time recognize requests for extradition proceedings that show clear signs of political persecution,” Garzón added.
Garson said Chambers donated much of his fortune to humanitarian projects in Gaza, including a bakery, community kitchen, mobile clinic and reconstructive surgery for children injured in the war.
Garzón said the move to Tunisia, which took place while Chambers was living there, paid off the debts of the struggling football club and covered salaries and personal expenses, arguing that the funds were not raised illegally and therefore did not amount to money laundering under Spanish law.
The four participants in the New Hampshire protest were each sentenced to 60 days in prison, and Chambers could face up to five years in prison if convicted of rioting and conspiracy to riot over the same incident. Gerson claims his client wasn’t even in Massachusetts when the protests occurred, but in Atlanta, Georgia.
The lawyer cited the Trump administration’s 2025 ICC-related sanctions and funding memo to a wide range of NGOs, as well as Human Rights Watch reporting on U.S. sanctions imposed on several Palestinian rights groups later that year, as background for his client’s political persecution claims.
Relations between the Trump administration and the government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez have been strained in recent months, with US President Donald Trump criticizing Sánchez’s opposition to the Iran war and the country’s handling of immigration.
The left-wing Sumar Coalition, part of the Spanish governing coalition, had called on the government to block the extradition. “Extradition amounts to criminalizing solidarity with Palestine,” said Enrique Santiago, Smar’s deputy parliamentary spokesperson.
Ione Belara, a member of Spain’s parliament and secretary general of the left-wing Podemos party, called Chambers “the first political prisoner in Spain’s history to be imprisoned for supporting Palestine.”
“The government has done what it has to do at this stage. It’s purely procedural,” government spokeswoman Elma Saiz said, adding that “all necessary safeguards” would be put in place for Chambers while the extradition request is reviewed by the National Court of Justice.
“We now have to let the National Court and Mr. Chambers’ legal team do their work. Once the National Court’s decision is known, all arguments will be weighed and a final decision will be made,” Saiz added.
CNN has reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice for comment.
Chambers’ partner, American actress Stella Schnabel, is three months pregnant with their second child.
“Even though Fergie has not been convicted of a crime, she could potentially spend the first year of her child’s life unable to hold her child and only seeing her through a glass window,” she said in a written statement provided to CNN.
“Fergie should be with me and the kids and continue doing charity work, not sitting in a cell doing that.”
