{"id":1104945,"date":"2022-01-18T20:30:22","date_gmt":"2022-01-18T19:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eldigitaldeasturias.com\/noticias\/?p=1104945"},"modified":"2022-01-18T20:30:22","modified_gmt":"2022-01-18T19:30:22","slug":"spanish-rapper-could-be-extradited-after-belgian-court-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eldigitaldeasturias.com\/noticias\/spanish-rapper-could-be-extradited-after-belgian-court-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish rapper could be extradited after Belgian court ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels (dpa) – A rapper convicted in Spain for glorifying terrorism may face extradition from Belgium after the country’s highest court on Tuesday part overturned a ruling blocking his expulsion, the Belga news agency reported.<\/p>\n

\"noticias<\/p>\n

Rapper Valtonyc, whose real name is Josep Miquel Arenas, was sentenced in February 2018 to a three-and-a-half-year term for the glorification of terrorism and insulting the Spanish monarchy in his lyrics, among other things.<\/p>\n

Arenas fled to Belgium in May 2018 where he has resisted extradition since. A court in Ghent previously ruled in his favour that he should not be extradited for these actions.<\/p>\n

Belgium’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, has now partially overruled this decision with regards to the charges of insulting Spain’s royal family. As a result, the court in Ghent must make another ruling on his extradition.<\/p>\n

The European Court of Justice has previously dealt with the case.<\/p>\n

At the time of Valtonyc’s prosecution, Spain’s maximum penalty for his offences was set below the three-year threshold that compels EU countries to execute a European Arrest Warrant regardless of whether it is a crime in their own country.<\/p>\n

The ECJ in 2020 dismissed Spain’s argument that Valtonyc should be handed over automatically by Belgium due to the maximum sentence for crimes linked to his provocative lyrics.<\/p>\n

The court found Belgium had a duty to scrutinize whether the acts for which Valtonyc was convicted are also crimes in Belgium, and whether they are severe enough to justify executing the warrant.<\/p>\n

The judges said however this does not mean that the request will ultimately be refused.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brussels (dpa) – A rapper convicted in Spain for glorifying terrorism may face extradition from Belgium after the country’s highest court on Tuesday part overturned a ruling blocking his expulsion, the Belga news agency reported. Rapper Valtonyc, whose real name is Josep Miquel Arenas, was sentenced in February 2018 to a three-and-a-half-year term for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1074027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1104945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualidad"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t