BARCELONA, Spain – Thousands of protesters stormed some of Barcelona’s streets on Tuesday night to demand the release of a rapper arrested by Spanish police after being sentenced to prison for glorifying terrorism and insulting royalty in his songs.
Dozens of police raided the university of Lleida in northeastern Spain earlier in the day and arrested rapper Pablo Hasel after he barricaded himself there. Hasel, known for his radical leftist views, missed a deadline last Friday to surrender to the police to serve a nine-month prison sentence in 2018 – a sentence that caused controversy in Spain and prompted the government to announce it would make the freedom of expression less restrictive laws.
Hasel was convicted of letters and tweets that included references to the Basque separatist paramilitary group ETA, compared Spanish judges to Nazis and called ex-king Juan Carlos the mafia chief.
After Hasel’s arrest, Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo told reporters that arresting people for free speech should not happen in a democracy like Spain.
Hasel took refuge at the university with a group of supporters on Monday. They clashed briefly with the police on Tuesday morning, throwing chairs and emptying fire extinguishers, before officers carrying weapons and wearing protective helmets arrested Hasel.
The news footage showed thousands of people marching on some of Barcelona’s main streets, shouting “Freedom for Pablo Hasel”. Protests have also taken place in other cities and towns in the Catalonia region.
There were some clashes between protesters and riot police, with images showing burning bins, looted shops and objects thrown at police officers trying to disperse the crowd, sometimes using batons and foam projectiles.
Mossos d’Escuadra, the Catalan regional police, said on Twitter that protesters burned motorcycles and dumps, creating barricades and blocking streets in Barcelona, and that 14 people were arrested.
“Could be you”
“The victory will be ours. … There will be no forgetting or forgiveness, ”shouted Hasel, with his fist raised, as he was surrounded by the police and taken to prison, several hours earlier he retweeted the letter for which he was convicted.
“Tomorrow could be you,” added Hasel in a message to his 125,000 followers.
More than 200 artists, including filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, actor Javier Bardem and singer Joan Manuel Serrat, signed a petition opposing Hasel’s prison sentence.
Spain’s left-wing government said last week in response to the case that it would reform the “gag law” enacted in 2015 by a previous government to prevent the glorification of banned armed groups like ETA. The law also prohibits insults against religion and monarchy.
The government said it would introduce milder penalties, target only actions that pose a risk to public order or could cause violence and that it will maintain tolerance for forms of artistic, cultural and intellectual expression.
ETA announced its dissolution in 2018, after a four-decade campaign of violence that ended in 2010.