Belgian court refuses to extradite Spanish rapper Valtònyc

A court in Belgium on Monday refused to extradite a Spanish rapper who fled the country after being sentenced to prison for lyrics that included praise for terrorists and threatening language against private citizens and the king.

Josep Miguel Arenas Beltrán, better known by his artistic name Valtònyc, welcomed the favorable decision by a judge in Ghent, made on the basis that there is no equivalent in Belgian law for the crimes that he was found guilty of in Spain.

The rapper is still wanted back home, where he was sentenced to three years and six months in prison

Arenas Beltrán is still wanted back home, where he was sentenced to three years and six months in prison, and faces arrest if he returns. His defense lawyers – the same team defending the Catalan secessionist leaders who fled to Belgium to avoid being tried for rebellion – said they will take his case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to secure a ruling that will allow the rapper to return to Spain. But the proceedings could take years.

“We will go all the way to the European Court of Human Rights, we will set a precedent and we will prove that we are right: that there is no freedom in Spain, not just because you can’t vote, there is no freedom of expression either,” said the musician, alluding to the Catalan independence referendum held on October 1 in defiance of the Constitutional Court, which had ruled it illegal.

The rapper’s lyrics include passages such as: “I want to send Spaniards a message: ETA is a great nation,” citing the Basque terrorist group that killed over 800 people between 1968 and 2010. Other lines contain death wishes against Jorge Campos, leader of a recently created right-wing political party named Actúa Baleares, which opposes regional nationalism on the Balearic Islands. “Jorge Campos deserves a nuclear destruction bomb,” “we want death for these pigs,” and “I will rip off his artery and whatever else is necessary” were some of the lines aimed at Campos.

If I want to threaten someone, I wouldn’t do it in a song, I would go to his house and threaten him Rapper Valtònyc

Arenas Beltrán had always held that these are not real threats. “If I want to threaten someone, I wouldn’t do it in a song, I would go to his house and threaten him,” he said. A Belgian judge has now agreed that these are not considered crimes in Belgium, although prosecutors may appeal the decision. If so, a ruling will be handed down in the space of 30 days.

“We imagine that the Belgian prosecutor will appeal,” said Gonzalo Boye, one of the rapper’s defense lawyers. “What the judge has manifested is very clear: this is freedom of expression, and none of the sentences in the songs include criminal content.” According to Belgian legislation threats have to be issued in writing in order to be considered as such, not in a song, said the singer’s defense.

As for threats against the king of Spain, Valtònyc’s defense noted that in March of this year, the ECHR ruled against Spain in a case involving photographs of the monarch that were burnt in public by a group of activists.

Also in March, another Spanish rapper named Pablo Rivadulla, known by the artistic name of Pablo Hásel, was sentenced to two years and a day in jail for repeatedly praising terrorists, and for slandering the Spanish state and royal institutions. In another high-profile case, a university student named Cassandra Vera received a one-year prison sentence for making jokes about terrorist attacks on Twitter, although she was later acquitted by a higher court.

English version by Susana Urra.