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For the fourth consecutive night, this Friday demonstrations in favor of Pablo Hasél were repeated in several cities of Catalonia. Likewise, clashes between protesters and police were recorded again. The Spanish rapper was jailed this week for tweets praising convicted terrorists, although he was also sanctioned for accusing the police of torture and the Crown of corruption.
Since the incarceration of controversial rapper Pablo Hasél on Tuesday, Spain has seen late-night demonstrations turn into street battles between police and protesters. For the fourth consecutive day, there have been riots in several Catalan cities this Friday to demand his release.
In Barcelona, the police charged at protesters who had formed fire barricades, and who had thrown stones and bottles. Shops have also been looted and the windows of several banking entities have been broken.
Three people were arrested in Barcelona, bringing the total number of arrests to 60 throughout Catalonia since the start of the protests. On Tuesday, a woman also lost an eye in Barcelona, prompting politicians to call for police tactics to be investigated.
That same day, rapper Pablo Hasél was imprisoned and sentenced to nine months in prison for tweets in which he insulted the monarchy and the police, as well as for glorifying terrorism. The clashes began a few hours later.
The conviction of Pablo Hasél, known for his anti-establishment raps, has prompted a debate on freedom of expression in Spain, leading the government to announce that it will make speech laws less restrictive. “Democracy protects freedom of expression, including the expression of the most horrible and absurd thoughts, but democracy never, ever protects violence,” declared the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, who promised to “expand and improve freedom of expression “.
The reform of the Spanish Penal Code had been requested by organizations such as Amnesty International, which considers Hasél’s conviction “disproportionate”. “No one should be criminally convicted of tweeting or singing something disgusting or scandalous,” the organization said.
The case is unleashing a new storm within the coalition government
The protests after Hasél’s arrest are also causing great tension within the Spanish government, specifically between the president’s Socialist Party and the administration’s radical left ally, Podemos, which criticized the rapper’s arrest. The party’s parliamentary spokesman, Pablo Echenique, openly supported the “young anti-fascites (who are) demanding justice and freedom of expression in the streets.”
The tweets that led the Spanish rapper to jail were published between 2014 and 2016. In them, he paid tribute to Spanish armed groups such as the now defunct Basque separatist organization ETA, which over four decades killed at least 853 people in a campaign of attacks with car bombs and shootings.
On Twitter, Pablo Hasél also frequently accuses the Spanish security forces of torture and murder. Another of his favorite targets is the Spanish Crown. Hasél accuses the royal family of corruption and incest, and has described the current king of Spain, Felipe VI, as a “parasite.”
On Saturday a strike and a student demonstration are planned in Catalonia, the singer’s native region, where the mobilization is strongest. In Madrid, a new protest is also expected for Saturday afternoon.
Hasél is not the first rapper whose case shakes the controversy over the limits of freedom of expression in Spain. In 2018, another rapper, Valtonyc, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for the same crimes.
With EFE, AFP, Reuters and local media
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source https://pledgetimes.com/the-imprisonment-of-rapper-hasel-strains-the-spanish-government/
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