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Madrid Spanish police arrested nearly 50 people on Wednesday night amid a second night of clashes over a rapper’s jail sentence over a series of tweets insulting police and the monarchy. Angry protests erupted for the first time in Catalonia on Tuesday night after police detained 32-year-old Pablo Hasel, who was locked up at a university in the region, in an attempt to avoid jail time in a controversial case.
The protests escalated on Wednesday with hundreds gathering in a violent police presence in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, demanding his release. The protesters in the capital later threw bottles at police, who charged them in clashes that lasted several hours.
According to police, at least 15 people were arrested, but they would issue an update on Thursday morning, while emergency services in the city said 55 people were injured, including 35 police officers.
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In Barcelona, protesters looted objects from the police and set fire to barricades, with police firing foam rounds and charging the protesters.
Across Catalonia, Mossos d’Esquadra regional police said 31 people had been arrested, including 10 in Barcelona, 14 in Lerida, where Hasel was arrested, five in the northern city of Girona and 2 in Tarragona.
According to medics, eight people were lightly injured, and local officials and a human rights organization confirmed that a 19-year-old woman, a protester, lost an eye after a foam round was hit by police in Barcelona on Tuesday.
At least 15 people were arrested on Tuesday night in protests in several Catalan cities in which more than 30 people were injured, including 19 police officers, officials said.
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Hasel missed a Friday deadline to surrender himself and begin serving a nine-month prison sentence handed down in 2018. He was convicted of glorifying terrorism and insulting and insulting the monarchy and state security forces after posting a series of tweets calling in former King Juan Carlos I am a mafia boss and accusing the police of torturing protesters and migrants and killed.
Hasel is known for his hard-left views, but his case has become a major issue among campaigners, who say the prosecution of him is a dangerous attack on freedom of speech.
His sentence caused outrage in Spain with stars, including filmmaker Pedro Almodovar and Hollywood actor Javier Bardem, expressing support for his cause.
Amnesty International denounced the move, saying the rapper’s jail time for lyrics and tweets was “unfair and excessive.”