More than 200 artists, including Pedro Almodóvar, Joan Manuel Serrat, Javier Bardem, Fernando Trueba or Vetusta Morla, signed a manifesto demanding the release in Spain of rapper Pablo Hasel, sentenced to imprisonment for high-profile terrorism and insults to the Crown.
“The Spanish is at the top of the list of countries where more artists have retaliated for the content of their songs,” denounces the letter to Efe, which “equates” the situation of freedoms in this country after the musician’s imprisonment. with countries like Turkey or Morocco “.
The actors Alberto San Juan, Antonio de la Torre, Luis Tosar, Paco León, Aitana Sánchez Gijón, Emma Suárez or Javier Gutiérrez are other names who subscribe to this letter that warns against the “sword of Damocles hanging over everyone’s head. Public figures “who dare” openly criticize the implementation of one of the actions of the state.
“We are aware that if we have Pablo locked up, they can go after each of us tomorrow, in this way until all dissident sighs have been silenced,” the statement also signed by musicians such as Santiago Auserón, Coque Malla, underlined. Ismael Serrano, Pedro Guerra or the members of Def Con Dos.
For all this writing “demands” Hasel’s freedom, “and that these crimes be removed from the criminal code, which limits only the right to freedom of expression, but also to ideological and artistic freedom.”
Among the large number of rappers that support his partner, in addition to Rayden, Tote King, Frank T of Ayax and Prok, Valtonyc, who is currently awaiting the decision of the Belgian Justice on his possible extradition to Spain, has been precisely claimed. for a crime of insults to the Crown.
The long list of signatories also includes film directors such as Montxo Armendáriz and Isaki Lacuesta, the journalist Javier Gallego or the illustrator and cartoonist Javier Royo.
In late January, the National Court ordered his admission to prison to serve a nine-month sentence and one day’s imprisonment, which he was sentenced to before the Supreme Court in May 2020 for the crimes of glorifying terrorism and insults against the Crown and institutions. of the state.
The sentence for Hasel, upheld by the Supreme Court, is added to previous sentences against the rapper, including the one imposed by the National Court in 2014 to two years in prison for glorifying terrorism for some of the lyrics of his songs about the Grapo. , ETA or Terra Lliure, although that sentence was then suspended by the court.
+ The explanation of the matter
The events for which Hasél has to go to prison date back to the period between 2014 and 2016, when he published 64 posts on Twitter and a number on YouTube, the Spanish newspaper El País reports.
In one of the messages, published in March 2016, he wrote along with a photo of the terrorist group member Grapo Victoria Gómez: “The demonstrations are necessary, but not enough, we support those who have moved on.”
He also charged the King Emeritus and Felipe VI with committing multiple crimes, including murder and embezzlement, El País said.
“Friends from the Spanish kingdom are bombing hospitals, while Juan Carlos goes hookers with them,” he wrote in January 2016.
In March 2018, he was sentenced to two years and one day in prison at first instance, but an appeals court reduced his sentence to nine months and one day since, although he committed the crimes for which he was convicted, he had to pay the minimum sentence. that was contemplated by law, because his messages did not pose a “real risk” to people. This decision was confirmed by the Supreme Court in May 2020.