The third consecutive night of violent protests in several cities in Spain against the imprisonment of rapper Pablo Hasél, for crimes such as glorification of terrorism and insults to the Crown, left 16 detainees and at least six injured, including two policemen.
The riots were again especially violent on the night from Thursday to Friday in Barcelona (northeast), with eight arrested, and also in Valencia (east), with another eight arrested, while no notable incidents were reported in Madrid, where on Tuesday and Wednesday there were also detainees and wounded.
The Catalan Medical Emergency System reported six people treated in the violent protests in Barcelona, where two agents of the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan Police, were injured with stones to the head.
The images of burning containers, barricades, police charges and races through the streets were repeated in Barcelona, while in other Catalan cities such as Tarragona and Sabadell there were also incidents.
Hundreds of people took to the streets in Barcelona, where stones and other objects were thrown at the Mossos d’Esquadra, with eight arrests for public disorder, and damage to urban furniture, vehicles, shops and the headquarters of the newspaper El Periódico .
The riots were also violent in Valencia, while in Barakaldo, in the Basque Country (north), the protest passed without incident.
At least 31 detainees last Wednesday night in several Catalan cities and Madrid were released on Thursday after testifying in court.
Hasél entered prison last Tuesday after being detained by the Police, to serve a sentence of nine months in prison, six years of disqualification from holding public office and the payment of almost 30,000 euros of fine for crimes of glorifying terrorism and insults against the Crown and the institutions of the Spanish State.
The rapper was already sentenced in 2014 to two years in prison for extolling terrorism although the Spanish National Court decided in 2019 to leave it on hold due to circumstances such as that he lacked a criminal record when he was convicted, while later he added other sentences for other crimes, among them, a two-year-old confirmed this past Thursday, and is awaiting another trial for attacking the Catalan Police.
His imprisonment has been denounced by numerous voices from areas such as culture in Spain, including renowned artists, and by organizations such as Amnesty International, while the Spanish Government has committed to reviewing the legislation on limits to freedom of expression so that certain manifestations in the artistic context do not carry prison sentences.