LLEIDA, Spain (AP) – Violent street protests erupted in some Spanish cities on Tuesday night after the arrest of a rap artist who barricaded himself at a university with dozens of supporters to avoid prison and described his case as a struggle for freedom expression.
In Barcelona, several thousand protesters set fire to rubbish bins and threw stones at police. Several shops and a bank were damaged amid chaotic scenes on one of the city’s main streets. Smaller demonstrations took place in Valencia and Palma de Mallorca, Spanish media reported.
A 24-hour conflict between police and Spanish rapper Pablo Hasél ended on Tuesday, when anti-riot officers arrested the artist shortly after dawn and escorted him from the rectory building of the University of Lleida. He and more than 50 supporters locked themselves in the university in the region of northeastern Catalonia in Spain on Monday at noon.
Hasél was sent to prison, where he will serve a 9-month sentence for insulting the monarchy and glorifying terrorism.
The university’s barricade was the rapper’s last effort to avoid serving his sentence and to draw attention to what he says is a campaign for freedom of expression. He faced criticism and legal action in connection with some of his statements, including on the monarchy and the need for armed resistance.
“We will win! They will never doubt us with all their repression!” The 32-year-old rapper said as he passed the TV news cameras.
The case of Hasél, whose birth name is Pablo Rivadulla Duró, has attracted more and more attention in Spain, with many members of the public, artists, celebrities and politicians showing their support and calling for a change in the so-called “Law Gag ”of the country. ”
Spain’s left-wing coalition government also unexpectedly announced last week that it would change the country’s penal code to remove prison sentences for crimes involving freedom of expression. He did not specifically mention Hasél, nor did he set a timetable for the changes.
The rapper is no stranger to controversy. With an artistic opposite that includes songs with strong anti-establishment criticism, he saw his notoriety amplified among the wider Spanish public at every meeting with the authorities.
Accused on at least four occasions of assault, boasting of armed extremist groups, entering private premises or insulting the country’s monarchy, in 2014 he was given a suspended sentence of 2 years. But in a new trial in 2018, judges sentenced him to a reduced sentence of 9 months behind bars for a song about former King Juan Carlos I and 64 tweets he posted between 2014 and 2016.
The tweets were on the line between opinion and calls for violent insurrection, with several mentions of ETA and Grapo, two extremist armed groups that have disappeared in Spain. In the song, Hasél abducted corruption related to the former monarch, but also spoke of him as a battered wife, a drunkard, a mob boss, and a frequent user of prostitution.
Spain’s national court on Monday rejected his latest appeal to be kept out of jail. The judges said that the sentence came on the back of a suspended one and that the criminals must serve their prison sentence if they repeat.
Hasél’s release from prison, the court said, would be “discriminatory” for other convicts, adding that the campaign around his case could be used to change laws in parliament, but that courts must apply the existing penal code.
“I will not allow them to tell me what to think, feel or say,” Hasel told the Associated Press late Monday. “This serves as an additional incentive for me to continue writing the same songs.”
Jordi Dalmau, the head of the Mossos d’Esquadara police for western Catalonia, said Hasél’s arrest, which involved dismantling office and bank barricades blocking the entrance to the building, was carried out “normally” and activists did not resist. The rapper had refused last week to voluntarily respond to a lawsuit to appear in prison.
Before being thrown into a police car, he shouted to the supporters “Death to the fascist state!”
More than 200 artists, including director Pedro Almodóvar and actor Javier Bardem, signed a petition last week in support of the rapper. Amnesty International noted that Hasel’s case was the latest in a series of lawsuits by artists and social media personalities under the 2015 Public Security Act introduced by a Conservative government.
Valtònyc, another rapper convicted on similar grounds in 2018, fled to Belgium, where judicial authorities rejected Spain’s extradition request. Other recent cases have involved puppets wearing political satire and bloggers joking about the assassination of General Francisco Franco’s 1939-1975 authoritarian regime.
The Spanish government’s eleven-hour proposal to amend the penal code by law is rejected by the conservative and right-wing opposition.
Tuesday’s arrest also sparked a new political storm in the ruling Socialist-led left-wing coalition from their smaller partner, the far-left United We Can (Unidas Podemos) party.
“All those who boast of this ‘full democratic normalcy’ and consider themselves progressive should be ashamed,” the party wrote on Tuesday. “Will they cover their eyes?” There is no progress if we refuse to acknowledge the current democratic deficits. ”
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Parra reported from Madrid. AP journalists Renata Brito from Barcelona and Ciarán Giles and Aritz Parra from Madrid also contributed to this report.