Belgian court rejects extraditing rapper Valtònyc to Spain

The Ghent Appellate Court in Belgium rejected extraditing Mallorcan rapper Josep Miquel Arenas Beltrán, known by the stage name Valtònyc, to Spain on Tuesday morning.

The Belgian public prosecutor's office now has 24 hours to appeal the ruling.

"It has already had enough, but it not yet clear to what extent its Spanish colleagues will insist on an appeal," the musician's lawyer, Simon Bekaert, said shortly after the announcement was made. "Insults to the king of Spain are not a crime in Belgium."

Victory. Court of appeal ruling Ghent. Even after cassation no extradition @valtonyc

— Simon Bekaert (@Simonbekaert) May 17, 2022

"I decided to come here due to a matter of fundamental rights and in the end, this has been the case," a visibly relieved Valtònyc told reporters outside the court.

"I have defended freedom of expression as much as a I could since I was 18 when this all began," he said, adding that Catalan rapper Pablo Hasel, whose arrest in February 2021 on similar charges sparked a wave of unrest, should be released.  

The Catalan-language musician, who was sentenced to 3 and half years behind bars in Spain in 2018 for glorifying terrorism, threats, and insulting the monarchy with his lyrics, evaded imprisonment by fleeing to Belgium.

This is not the first time a Belgian court has ruled against sending the rapper back to Spain to serve his sentence – another court issued a similar ruling only last December, but this was then appealed by the public prosecutor.

As glorifying terrorism and threats were ruled out as grounds for his extradition, Valtònyc’s case was retried exclusively on the basis of lèse-majesté, an offence that no longer exists in Belgium.

Indeed, the country’s own slander against the monarchy law, from 1847, was struck down in October due to Spain’s ongoing attempts to extradite the rapper.

The Belgium Constitutional Court removed it from the criminal code after determining that it violated the right to freedom of expression as well as the European Convention on Human Rights.