BARCELONA, Spain – Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Barcelona on Tuesday night to demand the release of a rapist arrested by Spanish police after receiving a prison sentence on charges of glorifying terrorism and insulting royalty in his songs.
Dozens of police officers stormed the university in Lleida in northeastern Spain earlier that day and arrested rapper Pablo Hasel after barricading himself there. Hasel, known for his radical leftist views, missed a deadline last Friday to surrender to police to serve a nine-month prison sentence in 2018 – a sentence that sparked riots in Spain and led the government to announce that it will make freedom of expression less restrictive laws.
Hasel was convicted of lyrics and tweets that included references to the Basque separatist paramilitary group ETA, compared Spanish judges to Nazis and named former king Juan Carlos as head of the mafia.
Following Hasel’s arrest, Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo told reporters that the closure of people for freedom of expression should not take place in a democracy like Spain.
Hasel took refuge at the university on Monday with a group of supporters. They clashed briefly with police Tuesday morning, throwing chairs and emptying fire extinguishers, before officers wearing guns and wearing protective hats caught Hasel.
The news images 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 regions in Catalonia.
There were several clashes between protesters and riot police, with images showing rubbish bins, looted shops and objects thrown at officers trying to disperse the crowd, sometimes using sticks and foam projectiles.
The Mossos d’Escuadra, the Catalan regional police, said on Twitter that protesters burned motorcycles and rubbish bins, creating barricades and blocking the streets of Barcelona and that 14 people were arrested.
“It could be you”
“The victory will be ours. “There will be no forgetting or forgiveness,” shouted Hasel, raised with his fist as he was surrounded by police and taken to prison, after redistributing the lyrics for which he was convicted a few hours earlier.
“Tomorrow could be you,” Hasel added in a message to his 125,000 followers.
More than 200 artists, including director Pedro Almodovar, actor Javier Bardem and singer Joan Manuel Serrat, have signed a petition opposing Hasel’s imprisonment.
Spain’s left-wing government said last week in response to the case that it would reform the “gag law” passed in 2015 by a previous administration to prevent the glorification of banned armed groups such as ETA. The law also prohibits insults against religion and monarchy.
The government has said it will introduce lighter sanctions, target only actions that pose a risk to public order or could lead to violence, and support tolerance of artistic, cultural and intellectual forms of expression.
ETA announced its dissolution in 2018, after a four-decade-long campaign of violence ended in 2010.