Gonzalo Boye Tuset (born 3 April 1965) is a lawyer based in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, known for being convicted in connection with a kidnapping by Basque separatist group

ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...

in 1996, and for attempting to charge members of the

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

administration officials for war crimes committed against Spanish citizens. In recent years, he has often been in the media spotlight as lawyer of former Catalan President

Carles Puigdemont Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó (; born 29 December 1962) is a Catalan politician and journalist from Spain. He has been the President of Together for Catalonia (Junts) since 2024, having previously held the office from 2020 to 2022. He served ...

, who he successfully defended against extradition from several EU countries to Spain.

Biography

Boye was born in

Viña del Mar Viña del Mar (; meaning "Vineyard of the Sea") is a List of cities in Chile, city and Communes of Chile, commune on Zona Central, Chile, central Chile's Pacific coast. Often referred to as ("The Garden City"), Viña del Mar is located withi ...

(Chile) on 3 April 1965. His father developed ''anti-pinochetista'' stances while his mother (of Catalan descent) turned to support Pinochet instead. Boye has dual German and Chilean citizenship. He took his basic education at

The Mackay School The Mackay School, a Chilean school located in Reñaca, Region of Valparaiso, Chile. Of Scottish origin; it was founded in 1857 by Scottish immigrants. It is considered one of the best academic institutions in the Valparaíso Region. Currently it ...

, an elite school in

Valparaíso Valparaíso () is a major city, Communes of Chile, commune, Port, seaport, and naval base facility in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. Valparaíso was originally named after Valparaíso de Arriba, in Castilla–La Mancha, Castile-La Mancha, Spain ...

. He lived for a while in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

(Germany), where he studied Economics and Political Science, failing to graduate. He reportedly moved to Spain by the late 1980s. 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. He was cleared from the first kidnapping. In 1996 the

Audiencia Nacional The Audiencia Nacional (; ) is a high court in Spain with jurisdiction over all of the Spanish territory. It is specialised in certain kinds of crime, having original jurisdiction over major crimes such as those committed against the Crown and i ...

sentenced Boye to 14 years in prison for collaborating with Basque separatist group

, 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. Boye began to study law while he was convicted, earning a

licentiate degree A licentiate (abbreviated Lic.) is an academic degree present in many countries, representing different educational levels. The Licentiate (Pontifical Degree) is a post graduate degree when issued by pontifical universities and other universitie ...

in Law from the

Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia The National Distance Education University (, UNED) is a distance learning and research university founded in 1972 and is the only university run by the government of Spain. The headquarters is located in Madrid, with campuses in all Spanish ...

(UNED) in 2002, the year in which he was released. 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. Spain has a tradition of being more aggressive than other nations, famously trying to extradite

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

an leader

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean military officer and politician who was the dictator of Military dictatorship of Chile, Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader ...

from Britain. In 2009 Boye tried to initiate extradition of six former officials from the

Presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified b ...

. Boye was one of four individuals profiled in the award-winning documentary '' The Guantanamo trap''. The movie challenges whether Boye was fairly convicted for the kidnapping. According to ''

Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...

'' 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, 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

Living people 21st-century Spanish lawyers Place of birth missing (living people) Chilean emigrants to Spain Chilean kidnappers 1965 births {{Spain-law-bio-stub