US seeks first known extradition of a citizen over alleged Hamas support

Spain's high court spent two hours on Friday hearing a US extradition request for James "Fergie" Chambers, a Cox Enterprises heir who sold roughly $250 million in family stock in 2023 and put the proceeds into a foundation. It is the first known instance of the United States seeking to extradite one of its own citizens over alleged support for Hamas.

The request, filed under the Trump administration, rests on an international money-laundering charge and two riot counts from late-2023 protests against Elbit, the Israeli weapons manufacturer, in Massachusetts and New Hampshire — where Chambers locked himself to a door, marched in the street, and paid bail for four fellow protesters who served 30 days on misdemeanors. The laundering count concerns $7.2 million moved in ten bank transfers to Tunisia in 2024, money Chambers says went chiefly to sponsor Club Africain, "one of the largest football clubs in Africa," and a sporting business he ran there.

The filing depicts a violent backer of Hamas on the run from American justice. None of the three judges asked Chambers about that, and the prosecutor sped through the case, asked him no questions and kept his head down — leaving defense lawyer Aitor Martínez to walk the panel through alleged irregularities in the request and to ask whether anything indicated the Tunisian money had gone toward terrorist activity. The Guardian has previously reported several irregularities in the filing. A financial expert testified for the defense.

Chambers, a self-described communist and anti-imperialist, was arrested in Ibiza on 10 July. His foundation has backed an estimated 100 projects in 20 countries, screening applicants against US sanctions lists, and has funded organizations in Gaza working on "medical treatment for children, transportation out of dangerous areas and clean water and food." The riot counts come from protests against an Israeli weapons firm; the request was filed by the government that supplies Israel's military.

The panel rules next week — possibly among Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's final acts before national elections on 29 November. Even a ruling for Washington would not settle the matter: Spain's council of ministers can reverse the court's decision. The request describes a fugitive. The man it wants told the court that while he lived in Tunis, the US ambassador lived next door.