Gonzalo Boye

Gonzalo Boye
Born (1965-04-03) 3 April 1965 (age 59)
Viña del Mar, Chile
NationalityChilean/German
OccupationLawyer

Gonzalo Boye Tuset (born 3 April 1965) is a lawyer based in Spain, known for being convicted in connection with a kidnapping by Basque separatist group ETA in 1996, and for attempting to charge members of the George W. Bush administration officials for war crimes committed against Spanish citizens.[1][2][3][4] In recent years, he has often been in the media spotlight as lawyer of former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who he successfully defended against extradition from several EU countries to Spain.

Biography

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Boye was born in Viña del Mar (Chile) on 3 April 1965.[5] His father developed anti-pinochetista stances while his mother (of Catalan descent) turned to support Pinochet instead.[6] Boye has dual German and Chilean citizenship.[6] He took his basic education at The Mackay School, an elite school in Valparaíso.[6]

He lived for a while in Heidelberg (Germany), where he studied Economics and Political Science, failing to graduate.[6] He reportedly moved to Spain by the late 1980s.[6]

Allegedly a member of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR), Boye was detained in 1992 by the Policía Nacional, accused of participating in the kidnappings of Diego Prado y Colón de Carvajal in 1983 and Emiliano Revilla in 1988.[7] He was cleared from the first kidnapping.[7]

In 1996 the Audiencia Nacional sentenced Boye to 14 years in prison for collaborating with Basque separatist group ETA, after the Court considered proven that Boye played a key role in the kidnapping of the businessman Revilla, that lasted for eight months. The victim was released after a large ransom payment.[6]

Boye began to study law while he was convicted, earning a licentiate degree in Law from the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) in 2002, the year in which he was released.[8][3][9]

Many nations allow war crime charges to be laid against non-citizens, and non-residents, when the countries where they lived when the war crimes were committed has failed to initiate an effective inquiry.[1][3] Spain has a tradition of being more aggressive than other nations, famously trying to extradite Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet from Britain. In 2009 Boye tried to initiate extradition of six former officials from the Presidency of George W. Bush.

Boye was one of four individuals profiled in the award-winning documentary The Guantanamo trap.[2] The movie challenges whether Boye was fairly convicted for the kidnapping. According to Deutsche Welle Boye was "a victim of police torture himself". However, Boye was convicted and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. After 6 years in prison he was set free.

Boye has been the lawyer for Pablo González Yagüe,[10][11] a Russian-Spanish journalist arrested by the Polish authorities in February 2022 as a Russian agent and held without trial until a multinational exchange of prisoners with Russia in August 2024.

References

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  1. ^ a b Tracy Rucinski (2009-03-28). "Spain may decide Guantanamo probe this week". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2009-04-26. Retrieved 2009-03-29. One of the lawyers who filed the complaint which triggered the review told Reuters: 'It's not that we think the High Court might accept the complaint, they must accept it,' Gonzalo Boye said.
  2. ^ a b "Documentary holds up four-sided mirror to Guantanamo Bay". Deutsche Welle. 2011-08-29. Archived from the original on 2011-09-30. Retrieved 2011-11-18. In Spain, criminal prosecution lawyer Gonzalo Boye, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for assisting the kidnapping of Spanish entrepreneurs Emiliano Revilla and also Diego de Prado y Lon de Carvajal.
  3. ^ a b c Andrew C. McCarthy (2009-03-31). "Spain's Universal Jurisdiction Power Play". National Review. Archived from the original on 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2011-11-19. Unmentioned is how Boye came to be a Madrid lawyer. He obtained his law degree in a Spanish prison. According to reports in the Spanish press (read here), Boye, a Chilean, was a member of the terrorist Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) when, in collusion with the ETA, Spain's Marxist-Leninist Basque terrorist outfit, he participated in the abduction of a Spanish businessman, Emiliano Revilla.
  4. ^ "FUE CONDENADO POR COLABORAR CON ETA: Gonzalo Boyé está detrás de la querella contra el ex ministro de Defensa israelí" [He was convicted of collaborating with ETA: Gonzalo Boye behind the lawsuit against former Israeli Defense Minister]. Libertad Digital Internacional. 2009-01-30. Archived from the original on 2012-01-30. Retrieved 2011-11-19.
  5. ^ Alcázar, Sergi (22 April 2019). "Boye acusa al alcalde de Coripe de islamofobia". www.elnacional.cat.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Iglesias, Leire (8 September 2018). "Verdades, mentiras y deudas sin pagar del abogado de Puigdemont". El Mundo.
  7. ^ a b "Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria". El Mundo. 21 October 2019.
  8. ^ "'He sacado provecho de una situación complicada'" (PDF). UNED.
  9. ^ "Gonzalo Boye: el abogado de Puigdemont condenado por colaborar con ETA". VozPopuli. October 2019.
  10. ^ "El periodista Pablo González lleva tres semanas preso en Polonia sin que su familia y su abogado hayan podido contactar con él". Público. March 21, 2022. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
  11. ^ "Un compañero de Pablo González asegura que lo que le ocurre al periodista es "inconcebible"". Naiz. March 13, 2022. Retrieved March 23, 2022.


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