Belgian justice denies extradition to Spain of rapper Valtònyc

Valtònyc, in a 2019 concert in Brussels. © Delmi Alvarez

The Court of Appeal of Ghent (Belgium) has denied this Tuesday the delivery to Spain of Josep Miquel Arenas, the Mallorcan rapper known as Valtònyc and who has been on the run in that country since 2018 after being sentenced by the Supreme Court to three and a half years of imprisonment for glorifying terrorism, threats and insults to the Crown in the content of his songs. The court's decision comes more than three years after a judicial journey began that has passed through the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Constitutional Court of Belgium.

The coup by the Belgian courts, which frustrates the intentions of the Spanish justice system, is not yet final, but almost. The sentence of this Tuesday is appealable in cassation, an exceptional instance in which legal questions are discussed, but the merits of the matter are not reopened, so sources of the rapper's defense rule out that it is a route through which he will choose the Belgian Prosecutor's Office, which has 24 hours to announce its intention to present the appeal. For their part, sources from this body cited by Europa Press have indicated that they will wait to know the full text of the sentence, which will be notified to the parties this afternoon, to decide whether to exhaust the

judicial

(procedural route).

Josep Miquel Arenas, 28, was sentenced by the National Court in February 2017 to three and a half years in prison for glorifying terrorism, insults to the crown and threats included in the rhymes of songs he had composed in 2012 and 2013. In 2018, after the Spanish Constitutional Court rejected his appeal, the Spanish justice requested his admission to prison, but Valtònyc escaped the country in the trunk of a car to avoid prison. He settled in Belgium, where the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont and other pro-independence politicians claimed by Spain already resided. And thus began a judicial battle that little by little is coming to an end.

"Freedom of expression and a democratic interpretation of the law have triumphed," Gonzalo Boye, a lawyer from Valtònyc and also from Puigdemont, values ​​through instant messaging, adding that the judgment of the Court of Appeal "fully confirms the first instance decision" . In his first blow against Spain, in 2018, the Belgian justice already estimated that the singer could not be handed over, understanding that the acts for which he was sentenced in Spain fall within the freedom of expression and do not constitute a crime in Belgium.

The Ghent Court of Appeal, before pronouncing the sentence this Tuesday, wanted to ensure a little more, so it raised a preliminary inquiry to the Belgian Constitutional Court to find out if the offenses against the King fall within the freedom of expression or not. in Belgium. The defense of Arenas considered that a law of this country of 1847 that punished the injuries to the Belgian king and royal family would have been invalidated under the magnifying glass of the current fundamental norm of the country. And that is how the Constitutional Court finally considered it last October, taking the old nineteenth-century rule ahead and clearing the way for the Ghent court.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh, then they attack you and finally you win," said Arenas this Tuesday through social networks, in a message that was accompanied by a photo in which a hand is seen making a cut of sleeves to the Spanish embassy in Belgium. "Thanks to those who have supported me since my arrest in 2012, from exile in 2018, to the legal team and to the essentials who know that the fight is the only way," he added, ending his words with a message of support for the freedom of rapper Pablo Hasél, friend of Valtònyc, imprisoned in Spain in February of this year for glorifying terrorism and insults to the crown.

Since his arrival in Belgium, Arenas has belonged to the Waterloo circle, where Puigdemont resides, and it is not uncommon to see him in the so-called House of the Republic, performing technical tasks in support of Catalan politicians.

“Victory!” Belgian lawyer Simon Bekaert, who is part of the Arenas legal team and also defends pro-independence politicians, has also reacted through social networks.

“After three years of legal proceedings, a detour to the EU Court of Justice and the Belgian Constitutional Court, the Court of Appeal rules that Valtònyc cannot be extradited.

A good day for music and freedom of expression ”.