Belgium won’t extradite Valtònyc: the court rejects the Spanish Supreme Court’s request for an European Detention Order.

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1. ##Belgium won’t extradite Valtònyc: the court rejects the Spanish Supreme Court’s request for an European Detention Order

   ####*An appeal may still be lodged with the Court of Cassation*

   The Ghent Court of Appeal rejects the Spanish Supreme Court’s request for a European order for the Mallorcan rapper Josep Miquel Arenas, known as Valtònyc. Therefore, he has decided not to extradite her to Spain.

   Minutes after learning of the court’s decision, Valtònyc stated:

   >”I am very helpless to see how we have managed in Belgium for the justice to change the criminal code and retire the crime of insults to the crown; meanwhile, in Spain, the self-renowned ‘most progressive government in history’ will not do so.”

   Lawyer Gonzalo Boye has already celebrated on Twitter.

   Spanish justice is suing him for crimes of insult to the crown, one of threats and another of exaltation of terrorism, for which he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison by the National Court, nearly five years ago . The Ghent Court has rejected extradition for all three offenses.

   The rapper himself and his defense were confident that the extradition would be rejected, as happened in the first instance. In September, the Court of Appeal postponed the decision because it had doubts about the validity of the crime of insulting the crown and asked the Belgian Constitutional Court to clarify it. And he did it last month.

   In an unpublished ruling, the Constitutional Court replied that, although there was a law of 1847 that included insults to the king as a criminal act, it understood that this would have lost its meaning and abolished the crime of the Belgian legal system. He argued that it was unconstitutional and that it violated the fundamental right to freedom of expression.

   ####Also convicted of exalting terrorism

   In addition to the insults to the crown, Valtònyc – who left for Belgium in 2018, when he was ordered to go to prison – was also convicted of inciting terrorism and inciting violence in the lyrics of his songs.

   A court of first instance in Ghent has already rejected the extradition of the Mallorcan rapper because it considered that the content of the lyrics fell within the scope of freedom of expression. But the Belgian Public Prosecutor’s Office, representing the interests of the Spanish judiciary, appealed.

   The Public Prosecutor’s Office now has the option of bringing a final appeal to the Court of Cassation in Belgium. An option he ruled out when the Court of Appeal rejected the extradition of former councilor Lluís Puig.

2. Spain pushes for self-determination for Western Sahara while refusing to let Catalonia go.

3. Somebody want to post some translated lyrics regarding the terrorist aspect?

   Not particularly interested in the knocking of Royalty as that should be essential in any civilized society.