BARCELONA – Protests for the imprisonment of a rapper found guilty of insulting the Spanish monarchy and praising terrorist violence were overshadowed by riots on Thursday for the third consecutive night.
The situation of Pablo Hasél, who this week began serving a 9-month sentence in a prison in the northeast of the country, has unleashed a heated debate on the limits of freedom of expression in Spain and a political storm around the use of the violence by both the rapper’s supporters and the police.
The left-wing United We Can party, a partner in the ruling coalition, filed a “full” pardon petition on Thursday for Hasél and another rapper, Valtònyc, who fled to Belgium in 2018 to avoid prosecution on charges of “glorifying” terrorism.
But in a decision that could deepen tensions, judicial authorities in the northeastern region of Catalonia announced that Hasél lost a recent appeal and faces an additional 2 1/2 year jail sentence for obstruction of justice and assault in 2017. The sentence can be appealed again to the Supreme Court.
Like the previous two nights, the demonstrations began Thursday with mass gatherings in several cities that were initially peaceful for the most part.