BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – Protests against the imprisonment of a rapper convicted of insulting the Spanish monarchy and praising terrorist violence were marred by riots for the third night in a row on Thursday.
The plight of Pablo Hasél, who started serving a nine-month sentence in a northeastern prison this week, has sparked a heated debate over the limits of freedom of speech in Spain and a political storm over the use of force. by both the rapper’s supporters and the police.
The ruling coalition’s subordinate partner, the far left party United We Can (Unidas Podemos), petitioned Thursday for a ‘total pardon’ for Hasél and another rapper, Valtònyc, who fled to Belgium in 2018 to seek a avoid trial on charges of “glorifying” terrorism.
But potentially adding to the tension, judicial authorities in the northeast region of Catalonia have announced that Hasél has lost a recent appeal and is considering an additional 2 1/2 years imprisonment for obstruction of justice and sexual assault in 2017. The sentence may be appealed again. are registered with the court. Supreme Court of the country.
As on the previous two nights, the protests began on Thursday with large rallies in several cities that were initially mostly peaceful.
In the regional capital of Catalonia, Barcelona, hundreds of songs sang, knocked and shouted “Pablo Hasél, freedom!” and “Spanish media, manipulators!” in a central square before dozens turned off the main group to set fire to a barricade of dumpsters and a construction container that blocked a main artery of the city and hurled rocks, bottles and other objects at riot police.
There were moments of tension when the flames threatened to spread to nearby buildings before firefighters arrived.
According to the regional delegation of the Spanish government, police in the eastern coastal city of Valencia used batons to disperse protesters and arrested at least eight people.
Nearly 80 people have been arrested and more than 100 injured since Hasél was taken away from a university where he sought refuge after he refused to appear voluntarily in prison.
The facades of the headquarters of various political parties have been engraved, a police station in the city of Vic has been battered and protesters have caused extensive damage to storefronts and bank offices in several cities, including the capital Madrid.
Catalan regional police have also launched an internal investigation to determine if one of their foam bullets hit a young person who lost an eye during the protests.
The rapper and his supporters say Hasél’s nine-month sentence for writing a critical song about former King Juan Carlos I, as well as dozens of tweets that the judges say glorified some of Spain’s defunct terrorist groups, is freedom of speech violates.
Aside from that case, the rapper has previously faced other charges or pending lawsuits for assault, praising armed extremist groups, invading private land and insulting the monarchy.
His legal situation has drawn a lot of public attention as it comes after a range of other artists and social media personalities have been brought to justice for violating Spain’s 2015 public security law, enacted by a previous conservative-led government and criticized by human rights organizations. .
One of them was Valtònyc, who has so far avoided extradition from Belgium.
United We Can parliamentary spokesman Jaume Asens said on Thursday that the party had taken the first step to demand an “urgent” and “total” pardon from both rappers. Pardons are a bureaucratic process and require final approval from the Spanish government, which is currently in the hands of a left-wing coalition led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Asens’ party.
And while both sides have agreed to amend the criminal code to remove jail sentences for crimes related to freedom of expression, the protests have also opened the latest rift in the shaky partnership after the opposition accused United We Can of violent protests not publicly condemned.
Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo, a member of the center-left Socialist Party, also criticized a United We Can spokesman who expressed support for what he called “ anti-fascist protesters fighting for freedom of expression. ”
Associated Press journalists Ciarán Giles and Aritz Parra in Madrid contributed to this report.