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ISSUE NO. 1734
27 Sept - 3 Oct 2018
By Tara Rippin A BELGIAN court has ruled against sending artist Valtonyc back to Spain where he faces jail for writing lyrics which glorify terrorism and slate the royal family. Instead, the judge found that the Spanish artist, real name Josep Miguel Arenas, had not committed a crime and was exercising his freedom of expression. Arenas, 24, from Palma de Mallorca, was supposed to hand himself in voluntarily to the authorities in Spain, where he has been given prison sentences totalling three and a half years. But instead he fled to Belgium. Speaking to press after the court hearing in Ghent, Arena’s lawyer Simon Bekaert, said the judge ‘decided there will be no extradition and discarded all three charges.’ The judge reportedly ruled that ‘there is no terrorism involved and no incitement of terrorism, so there is no question of a crime according to Belgian law.’ In addition, he found there
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Court rules against extradition of rapper used Arena’s case in a wider legal and political dispute over freedom of expression, condemning the way prosecutors have over-reached in using the criminal code to punish anybody who ‘glorifies terrorism’ or insults the Crown.
FREE SPEECH: Valtonyc was found not to have committed a crime. was no case to answer over insulting the Spanish king and that no threat was made that could warrant returning Arenas to his home country. Speaking to reporters after the decision, in English, Arenas thanked the courts for not extra-
diting him, but said he was aware that the ‘struggle continues.’ He added that he felt good and was happy, but expressed ‘sadness and concern for his comrades in Spain who are being repressed by the coun-
try’s laws.’ During the rapper and composer’s trials in Spain, courts rejected his argument that the point of rap lyrics is to be provocative and should be protected by free speech laws. Rights groups and activists