Spanish rapper, convicted for rapping, not extradited


This 17 September 2018 video in Spanish is about a Belgian court refusing to extradite rapper Valtònyc to Spain.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV:

The Spanish rapper Valtònyc, who was sentenced to a prison sentence for his song lyrics and fled to Belgium, does not have to be extradited to Spain. This has been decided by the Belgian court.

The 24-year-old Josep Miquel Arenas Beltran, as the rapper really is called, was sentenced to a prison sentence of 3.5 years last year for glorification of terrorism, threats and insulting the Spanish crown in his song lyrics.

At the end of the session, lawyer Simon Bekaert told the press that the rapper, according to Belgian law, was not guilty of glorifying terrorism or lèse-majesté. “The council chamber has ruled that it is not terrorism and that there is no violation as far as Belgian law is concerned, nor was there any question of lèse-majesté.” The judge finally stated that there were no threats.

Arrest warrant

At the end of May of this year, when he had to start serving his prison sentence, Valtònyc fled to Belgium. The Mallorca rapper reported to the Belgian police two months later in Ghent after Spain had issued an arrest warrant.

The investigating judge had released the rapper conditionally, while the Belgian court had to rule on his arrest warrant.

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