{"id":228763,"date":"2026-10-26T06:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T06:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-seized-american-heirs-cellphone-in-violation-of-treaty-agreement-lawyer-says-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T06:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T06:09:09","slug":"us-seized-american-heirs-cellphone-in-violation-of-treaty-agreement-lawyer-says-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-seized-american-heirs-cellphone-in-violation-of-treaty-agreement-lawyer-says-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"US seized American heir\u2019s cellphone in violation of treaty agreement, lawyer says – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

James \u2018Fergie\u2019 Chambers, in prison in Spain, has applied for asylum as US seeks extradition over alleged Hamas support
US authorities seized wealthy activist James \u201cFergie\u201d Chambers\u2019s cellphone at some point after Spanish police arrested him in July<\/a> without notifying him or his attorneys, the Guardian has learned.
Chambers, a US citizen and wealthy donor to leftwing and humanitarian projects, is imprisoned in Madrid. His case is the first known instance 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<\/a>, in Gaza.
The extradition request also includes charges associated with a protest against Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer.
Chambers\u2019s legal team discovered that the phone was no longer in the custody of the national court in Madrid and had been turned over to the FBI<\/a> upon inquiring about it Tuesday, according to attorney Aitor Mart\u00ednez.
This occurred despite the team having received written guarantees from the court that the phone \u201cwould remain under the court\u2019s custody while the extradition request was resolved\u201d \u2013 as both Spanish law and the extradition treaty between the two countries require, Mart\u00ednez said.
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything like this in an extradition case,\u201d he said. \u201cSpanish judicial authorities can\u2019t surrender control over the personal effects of a person sought in extradition just because a foreign government has asked for them \u2026 and now a judge has secretly turned over Fergie\u2019s phone to the US.\u201d
The defense has filed a petition with an appeals court seeking immediate return of the phone \u2013 as well as a detailed explanation of the phone\u2019s chain of custody, who authorized what and when and whether or not the US had accessed the phone\u2019s contents.
It is assumed the office of F\u00e9lix Bola\u00f1os, the Spanish minister of justice, would have to get involved in bringing the phone back, Mart\u00ednez said.
Chambers has asserted through his attorneys and partner, the actor and activist Stella Schnabel, that the extradition is politically motivated. He has applied<\/a> for political asylum from prison. Under Spanish law, an asylum applicant cannot be extradited until the asylum process is completed.
He remains imprisoned after a judge denied a petition for provisional release earlier this month, asserting in part that his wealth made him a flight risk.
Chambers, a self-described communist and anti-imperialist, is heir of the Cox family, owners of Atlanta-based Cox Communications. As part of a settlement in which his family severed ties with him at the time, he sold stock back to his family worth about $250m in mid-2023. Since then, he has been funding an estimated 100 projects in 20 countries, according to Schnabel.
Chambers\u2019s views and donations have been extensively profiled<\/a> in US media, and his public comments on Israel and Gaza have brought controversy. A week <\/strong>after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, he posted <\/a>on X about Israel\u2019s response: \u201cStop calling it \u2018collective punishment\u2019\/There\u2019s nothing to be \u2018punished\u2019 for\/No faction of the Palestinian resistance, Hamas or other, has done *anything* wrong\/It\u2019s simply genocide\/Like it has been.\u201d
His legal team is now asserting that various Spanish and international laws governing both extradition and political asylum have been violated by US authorities seizing his the phone without legal due process.
The Spanish courts are handling the extradition case and could take months to decide whether to hand Chambers over to the US. Meanwhile, Mart\u00ednez noted, a 1970 treaty between the two countries stipulates that the possessions of a person sought in extradition can only be released to the requesting country \u2013 in this case, the United States \u2013 if and when extradition has been granted.
As for the political asylum claim, \u201cChambers\u2019s status as an asylum applicant means the court can\u2019t ignore its obligations to protect him, or give information about him to the country alleged to be persecuting him,\u201d Mart\u00ednez said.
Schnabel told the Guardian she retrieved Chambers\u2019s personal effects last month at the prison where he is detained, including keys and identification. It is unclear whether Spain<\/a> had already surrendered his phone to the US by then; Mart\u00ednez said that the judge assured him on 20 July that the phone was in the court\u2019s custody.
\u201cI\u2019m not surprised,\u201d said Schnabel, referring to the apparent suspension of due process driven by the FBI\u2019s request.
\u201cIt\u2019s exactly in line with this administration not following the rules of the legal system.\u201d<\/p>\n

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James \u2018Fergie\u2019 Chambers, in prison in Spain, has applied for asylum as US seeks extradition over alleged Hamas supportUS authorities seized wealthy activist James \u201cFergie\u201d Chambers\u2019s cellphone at some point after Spanish police arrested him in July without notifying him or his attorneys, the Guardian has learned.Chambers, a US citizen and wealthy donor to leftwing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":228764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}