Extradition lawyer in Spain: how extradition is fought

Defending an extradition case in Spain is not about proving your innocence. The Audiencia Nacional (Spain’s National High Court) does not try the facts. The defence succeeds by showing that a legal requirement of the Spanish Extradition Act is missing or that a ground for refusal applies, such as lack of dual criminality, limitation, a trial in absentia without guarantees or a real risk of inhuman treatment.

Call +34 652 28 99 82 about an extradition arrestMessage us on WhatsApp

This guide explains how the defence of a person wanted by another country works in Spain, from the arrest to the final decision of the Spanish courts and Government. It is written for the person facing extradition and for their family, who usually arrive with the same question. Is there anything we can do? There is almost always technical work to be done. There is not always a ground for refusal, and it is better to know that on day one than to discover it at the hearing.

What does a Spanish court actually decide in an extradition case?

Extradition requests received by Spain are governed by the Ley 4/1985, de Extradición Pasiva (the Spanish Extradition Act, LEP), subject to any treaty with the requesting country and always on the basis of reciprocity (article 1 LEP). Jurisdiction lies with the Sala de lo Penal (Criminal Chamber) of the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid, wherever in Spain the person lives or was arrested (article 65.4 of the Organic Law of the Judiciary). An arrest in Málaga, Palma or Ibiza therefore ends up in Madrid.

The procedure has three stages. First, the Spanish Council of Ministers decides whether the request goes to the courts (article 9 LEP). Second, the Audiencia Nacional examines whether the legal requirements are met and whether a ground for refusal applies. Third, the Government decides on surrender. Its power only works in your favour, since if the court refuses extradition the Government cannot grant it (article 6 LEP).

The point that most surprises clients from the United Kingdom, Ireland or the United States is that there is no hearing on the evidence. Spain follows the continental model. The requesting State does not have to show a prima facie case or probable cause, and the Spanish court will not weigh the foreign evidence or listen to an alibi. The Constitutional Court describes extradition as a process about another process (STC 141/1998, of 29 June), and article 14.2 LEP only admits evidence on the conditions set by the treaty or the Act, as the Criminal Chamber has confirmed (Order of Section 2, 32/2018, of 4 May). An effective defence therefore does not argue the facts. It attacks the request.

Unlike the Anglo-American rule of non-inquiry, however, the Spanish court does examine the human rights consequences of surrender, including the sentence you face and the prison conditions awaiting you. That is where much of the real defence work takes place.

What happens in the first 24 hours after an extradition arrest in Spain?

Many cases begin at passport control, at an airport or during a routine identity check, when an Interpol notice or a request for provisional arrest appears on the police system. Article 8 LEP allows the requesting country to ask for urgent arrest before sending the formal request, provided it is based on a conviction or an arrest warrant. The arrested person must be brought before a judge within twenty-four hours (article 8.2 LEP).

The judge on duty sits in the Sección de Instrucción del Tribunal Central de Instancia (the central investigating court at the Audiencia Nacional). Since 31 December 2025, under Organic Law 1/2025, this court has taken over the functions of the former Juzgados Centrales de Instrucción. The Extradition Act and many older documents still use the old name, so do not be confused if you see it. It is the same step before the same court.

In those first hours a specialist lawyer does three things. They find out which country is requesting you, for what conduct and on the basis of what decision, because a request to stand trial is very different from a request to serve a final sentence. They check identity and nationality, since a mistaken identity or Spanish nationality ends the case. And they prepare the hearing on your personal situation, which is the decision with the greatest immediate impact on your life. Our advice is to say nothing about the facts. Nothing you say helps you in the Spanish proceedings, and it may end up in the foreign case.

What are your rights as a foreign national arrested in Spain?

A person arrested for extradition has the same rights as any detainee under article 520 of the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal (the Spanish Criminal Procedure Act), which applies by reference from article 10 LEP. The rights most relevant to a foreign national are the following.

• The right to be informed in writing, in simple language and in a language you understand, of the reasons for your arrest and of your rights (article 520.2).
• The right to a free interpreter if you do not understand or speak Spanish (article 520.2.h).
• The right to have your consulate informed of your arrest and to be visited by consular officials (article 520.2.e and g).
• The right to remain silent and not to incriminate yourself (article 520.2.a and b).
• The right to a lawyer of your choice, who must attend within a maximum of three hours of receiving the instruction (article 520.5). If you do not choose one, a duty lawyer is appointed.
• The right to be examined by a forensic doctor and to request free legal aid (article 520.2.i and j).

You are entitled to name a private lawyer from the police station. Giving the name and telephone number of the firm you trust is enough for the police to pass on the instruction through the Bar Association.

Is there bail in a Spanish extradition case?

Not in the sense a British, Irish or American client expects. There is no right to bail and no bail hearing with sureties in the common law style. In extradition cases the existence of the foreign proceedings is taken as given, so the decision turns almost entirely on flight risk. The Spanish Constitutional Court has held that this risk is assessed in relation to someone who is already out of reach of the courts of the requesting country (STC 16/2005, of 1 February, following STC 222/1997, of 4 December). Ties to Spain count, but less than in a domestic case, and Spain’s international obligations count for more. The United States applies a very similar presumption against release in extradition cases.

Release is nevertheless possible, and the defence has to build a credible alternative. Article 8.3 LEP allows the judge to replace custody with house arrest, an order not to leave a given place, periodic reporting, surrender of your passport and a fianza (a financial surety), and these measures can be combined. You need documents proving a stable address, work, family and the means to pay the surety. One point that surprises many clients is that the court will not allow you to live abroad while the case continues, not even in another EU country, because your departure would deprive the case of its purpose (Orders of Section 2 of the Criminal Chamber 534/2021, of 19 October, and of 12 January 2023).

Time limits on custody must be checked daily. After an urgent arrest, custody ends if the requesting country fails to file the formal request within forty days. If it files in time, the period is extended by another forty days (article 10 LEP). From then on the general maximum periods of pre-trial custody under the Criminal Procedure Act apply, as Section 1 of the Criminal Chamber has held (Order 222/2022, of 11 April), and all time spent in custody counts even if the periods are separate (STC 147/2000, of 29 May). The decision on custody can be challenged by a recurso de reforma (a request for reconsideration, article 12.3 LEP), and the judge may order release at any time if circumstances change (article 8.3 LEP).

Book a consultation to prepare the custody hearing

Should you consent to extradition or oppose it?

Once the Government sends the case to the courts, the judge holds a hearing with your lawyer, an interpreter if needed and the public prosecutor (article 12.1 LEP). You must state, with reasons, whether you consent to extradition or oppose it. If you consent and there is no legal obstacle, the judge may grant the request without the case reaching the Criminal Chamber (article 12.2 LEP).

Clients from common law countries often ask whether a deal can be struck. It cannot. There is no plea bargaining in Spanish extradition proceedings, and the prosecutor has nothing to offer in exchange for consent. The only real choice is between consenting and opposing. Consenting is not always a mistake. If no ground for refusal exists, opposing only adds months of detention in Spain, even though that time must later be credited against any sentence (article 18.1 LEP). But consent is treated as irrevocable, so it should never be given before reading the full request, its official translation and the applicable treaty.

At the same hearing you will be asked whether you waive the rule of specialty. That rule prevents the requesting country, once you are surrendered, from prosecuting, sentencing or detaining you for earlier and different conduct unless Spain authorises an extension, which is processed as a new request (article 21.1 LEP). Waiving it exposes you to every open case in that country. Before answering, your Spanish lawyer needs to know what other proceedings exist there, which usually means speaking to a lawyer in that country. The protection lapses if, after surrender and being free to leave, you remain in that country for more than forty-five days (article 21.2 LEP).

How is the opposition to extradition prepared?

After the hearing the judge issues one order on your personal situation and another sending the file to the Criminal Chamber. Before doing so the judge may ask the requesting country, on the judge’s own initiative or at your request, to complete the information on your identity and on the facts and law behind the request, within a time limit of no more than thirty days (article 12.4 LEP). This is the first opportunity to demand what is missing. A request that fails to describe the conduct with minimum precision may lead to refusal (Order of Section 2, 40/2018, of 29 June).

Before the Chamber, the file is made available to the prosecutor and to the defence for three consecutive days each (article 13.1 LEP). Three days to study a file that may be long, translated from another language and built on foreign law explains why the defence must arrive at this stage with the work already done. The public prosecutor gives an opinion on legality only. It does not represent the requesting country and does not bind the court (Order of the full Chamber 57/2016, of 30 September), and the defence opposes the request of the foreign State, not the prosecutor’s report (Order of the full Chamber 21/2021, of 12 March).

Useful evidence concerns the conditions of the treaty or the Act. It may include documents on nationality, on proceedings in Spain, on the status of the foreign case or on conditions in the specific prison where you would be held. When the issue depends on the law of the requesting country (limitation, the rules on trials in absentia or the review of a life sentence), the tool is an expert report on foreign law under article 281.2 of the Spanish Civil Procedure Act.

On what grounds can Spain refuse extradition?

The grounds are set out in articles 2 to 5 LEP and in the applicable treaty. They are closed and the court applies them strictly. A general objection that the requesting country cannot be trusted, or that the client is innocent, does not succeed. What succeeds is a specific ground supported by documents. These are the grounds we work on most often.

Is the conduct a crime in Spain? Dual criminality and minimum penalty

The conduct must be a crime in both Spain and the requesting country, punishable in both with a maximum of at least one year in prison. Where the request is to enforce a sentence, the sentence must be at least four months for conduct that is also a crime in Spain (article 2 LEP). The Constitutional Court links dual criminality to the principle of legality in criminal law (STC 11/1983, of 21 February, and STC 102/1997, of 20 May). The court does not compare statutes in the abstract. It takes the facts as described in the request and checks whether they fit an offence in the Spanish Código Penal (Criminal Code). Conduct that other countries punish as a crime may not be a crime in Spain, or not with the required penalty.

Is the case time-barred? Limitation and extinction of liability

Extradition is refused if criminal liability has been extinguished under Spanish law or under the law of the requesting country (article 4.4 LEP). It is enough that the offence is time-barred under either of them. Under Spanish law, limitation periods are those of article 131 of the Criminal Code, and article 132 only treats a reasoned judicial decision attributing participation to the person as interrupting the period. Acts of the police or the prosecutor do not (STC 63/2005, of 14 March). Many legal systems suspend limitation while the accused is a fugitive, or for other reasons that have no such effect in Spain. A date-by-date calculation can change the outcome.

Does your nationality matter? Spanish and EU citizens

Spain does not extradite its own nationals. Nationality is assessed at the time of the decision, unless it was acquired fraudulently to avoid surrender (article 3.1 LEP), and a pending application for nationality is not enough (Order of the full Chamber 25/2016, of 29 April). Spain also refuses extradition for offences that fall within the jurisdiction of the Spanish courts, although the Chamber does not refuse on this ground when a substantial part of the conduct took place abroad.

If you are a citizen of another EU Member State (for example Irish, German or Dutch), live in Spain and are requested by a country outside the Union, the Court of Justice of the European Union requires Spain to inform your State of nationality first, so that it can request your surrender under a European Arrest Warrant and prosecute you itself (Petruhhin, judgment of 6 September 2016, C-182/15). The full Criminal Chamber applied this case law in its Order of 7 December 2016 (súplica 71/2016), and the Court of Justice confirmed it in Pisciotti, judgment of 10 April 2018. Where the request is to enforce a sentence, Raugevičius (judgment of 13 November 2018) opens the possibility of serving it in the State of residence when a mechanism exists and both the person concerned and the requesting country consent. Since Brexit, British nationals no longer benefit from this protection, which makes the other grounds all the more important for them.

Have you already been tried for the same facts? Double jeopardy

Extradition is refused if the person has been tried, or is being tried, in Spain for the same facts, including where the Spanish case ended with a final dismissal (article 4.5 LEP). In addition, if an earlier request against the same person for the same facts was refused on substantive grounds, such as lack of dual criminality or the risk of inhuman punishment, a later request cannot be granted (STC 83/2006, of 13 March, and STC 293/2006, of 10 October, applied in the Order of Section 2, 50/2018, of 17 September). The full history of requests against the client, in Spain and abroad, must therefore be reconstructed.

Were you convicted in your absence? Trials in absentia

If the request is based on a judgment given in absentia, imposing a penalty that under Spanish law cannot be imposed on someone absent from trial, extradition is only granted if the requesting country guarantees a retrial at which you will be present and properly defended (articles 2 and 4.7 LEP). This is read in the light of the right of defence, so it matters whether you were effectively summoned and chose not to attend (STC 132/2020, of 23 September, and the Dworzecki judgment of the Court of Justice, of 24 May 2016). The defence must reconstruct how you were summoned, whether you had a lawyer and whether you can appeal, and insist that the guarantee is concrete rather than a formula.

What sentence do you face? Death penalty, life imprisonment and inhuman treatment

Extradition is refused unless the requesting country guarantees that you will not be executed or subjected to punishments that violate physical integrity or to inhuman or degrading treatment (article 4.6 LEP), in line with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights since Soering v. United Kingdom (7 July 1989). For life sentences, the full Criminal Chamber, following the Vinter v. United Kingdom line of the same Court, requires the authorities of the requesting country to undertake that the sentence will be effectively reviewable, stating the specific mechanisms, their legal basis and criteria (Order of the full Chamber 19/2023, of 20 March, and Order of Section 4, 201/2023, of 29 March).

Honesty requires two caveats. General human rights reports on the requesting country are not enough. You must show a real and specific risk to you personally, based on objective, reliable, specific and up-to-date sources (Aranyosi and Căldăraru judgment of the Court of Justice, 5 April 2016). And the European Court of Human Rights has required applicants first to show a real risk that an irreducible life sentence will actually be imposed (Carvajal Barrios decision, 13 July 2023). A foreign sentence that is simply harsher than a Spanish one is not, in itself, a ground for refusal.

Are you being persecuted? Political offences and discrimination

Spain does not extradite for political offences, which do not include terrorism, genocide or attacks on the life of a head of State or their family (article 4.1 LEP), nor does it extradite recognised refugees (article 4.8 LEP). The court may also refuse surrender where there are substantial grounds for believing that a request for an ordinary offence is made to prosecute or punish a person on account of race, religion, nationality or political opinion, or that their position may be prejudiced for those reasons (article 5.1 LEP). This ground requires specific evidence about the case, not a general description of the political situation in the country.

What happens at the hearing, and can you appeal?

The hearing takes place before a section of the Criminal Chamber within fifteen days of the review of the file (article 14.1 LEP). The prosecutor, the requested person with an interpreter, their lawyer and, where admitted, a representative of the requesting country take part. The court asks again whether you consent, you give a statement and the admitted evidence is examined, always limited to the legal conditions. Even if you consent, the court must apply any ground for refusal that exists.

The Chamber decides by reasoned order within three days (article 15.1 LEP). The only appeal is a recurso de súplica to the full Criminal Chamber, where none of the judges who issued the order may act as rapporteur (article 15.2 LEP). New issues not raised at first instance cannot be introduced on appeal (Order of the full Chamber 56/2019, of 1 July), so every argument must already be made at the hearing. There is no appeal to the Supreme Court.

After the full Chamber, a recurso de amparo (constitutional appeal) may be brought before the Constitutional Court for breach of fundamental rights, such as effective judicial protection or liberty, and that Court has traditionally suspended surrender while it decides, since otherwise the appeal would come too late. An application to the European Court of Human Rights also remains possible. Decisions of the Audiencia Nacional can be searched in the Spanish judiciary database (CENDOJ).

If the final court decision refuses extradition, it is definitive and the court orders your immediate release (articles 6 and 17 LEP). If the court declares extradition lawful, the Government may still refuse it on grounds of sovereignty, reciprocity, security, public order or other essential interests of Spain, and there is no appeal against its decision (article 6 LEP). This is a political decision and no defence should be built around it. If surrender is granted, the time spent in custody in Spain must be credited as time served (article 18.1 LEP).

What does a specialist extradition lawyer in Spain actually do?

Extradition is handled by a single court, under its own statute, with different bilateral treaties for each country, case law from the Spanish Constitutional Court, the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union, and a constantly evolving line of decisions from the Criminal Chamber. Deadlines are short and procedural opportunities are few. A sound defence requires, at the very least, the following work.

• Reading the full request and its official Spanish translation (article 7.2 LEP), and identifying errors, omissions and vague descriptions of the conduct.
• Identifying the treaty with the requesting country and its specific grounds for refusal, which may differ from those of the Spanish Act.
• Matching the conduct described with the offences of the Spanish Criminal Code and with the minimum penalty of article 2 LEP.
• Calculating limitation under both Spanish and foreign law, applying the interruption rules of each.
• Commissioning, where needed, an expert report on foreign law and finding specific evidence on conditions in the destination prison.
• Working with a lawyer in the requesting country to understand the real state of the case and any other open cases before deciding on consent and specialty.
• For EU citizens, triggering contact with the State of nationality under the Petruhhin case law.
• Preparing the hearing knowing that no new issues can be raised on appeal, and preparing the constitutional appeal if surrender is granted.

At Fechenbach Abogados we regularly appear before the Audiencia Nacional in extradition and European Arrest Warrant cases. We work in English, German, Polish and Spanish, and have offices in Madrid, Ibiza, Málaga and Palma de Mallorca. That allows us to speak directly with you and your family in English and to read the documents from your country without intermediaries. You can learn more about our criminal defence lawyers in Madrid, a short distance from the Audiencia Nacional. None of this guarantees an outcome. We will tell you plainly whether your case has a defensible ground for refusal or whether another strategy serves you better.

What should you do today if you or a family member is facing extradition?

The first step is to appoint a lawyer you trust and ask them to attend the first court appearance. That hearing decides whether you remain in custody and sets the initial position on consent, and it is far better prepared in advance than in a hurry. If there has been no arrest yet but you know or suspect that a request exists, have it reviewed before you travel or identify yourself to any authority.

Gather these documents as soon as possible:

• Passport and any documents proving nationality, including Spanish or EU nationality if you have it.
• Proof of residence in Spain (padrón certificate, tenancy agreement or title deeds), employment contract and documents of family members living in Spain.
• Any decision, summons or notice received from the requesting country, and the details of your lawyer there if you have one.
• Details of any criminal case in Spain, whether open, closed or finished.
• Relevant medical reports and evidence of the funds available for a surety.

And avoid what most often damages a defence. Do not make statements about the facts, either to the police or to the judge. Do not consent to extradition or waive the rule of specialty before reading the request with your lawyer. If you are released on conditions, do not leave Spain and do not miss a single reporting date, because a breach leads to custody (article 8.3 LEP). And do not contact the authorities of the requesting country on your own.

Call now +34 652 28 99 82Contact the firm about an extradition case

We respond within 24 hours. You can also write to us through our contact form or by email at info@fechenbach.es. If the person is in custody, tell us where they are held, which country is requesting them and whether they have already appeared before the judge.

Frequently asked questions

David Fechenbach Marcos. Managing Partner of Fechenbach Abogados, member of the Madrid Bar (ICAM) no. 122770, Associate Professor of Criminal Procedure at the University of Alcalá. Professional profile.

This content is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case requires individual analysis. Last reviewed: 18 September 2026.