MADRID – Major peaceful protests in several Spanish cities turned into chaos and clashes on Wednesday after police arrested a popular rapper, Pablo Hasél, who was barricading himself inside a university to avoid imprisonment for glorifying terrorism and the monarchy in tweets and lyrics degrading. .
Mr. Hasél, 32, was arrested on Tuesday in his hometown of Lleida, in the northeastern region of Catalonia, and protests against his arrest escalated on Wednesday night when protesters gathered in Madrid, Barcelona and other cities.
What started with people singing for the release of the rapper became violent when some protesters threw bottles and made fire when officers stormed in with batons and fired rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.
The conviction and arrest of Mr. Hasél has sparked a national debate over Spanish language regulations, which are some of the most restrictive language used as considered dangerous to state institutions.
After the conviction of mr. Hasél, the national left-wing coalition government said they intend to revamp parts of the criminal law.
Mr. Hazel’s original sentence of two years was reduced to nine months. The fact that an artist can be captured over the lyrics of a song or commentary on Twitter has made the artistic community of Spain a galvanization.
More than 200 leading Spanish writers and artists have signed a petition in which he Hasél defends and warns that the current law of Spain is a threat to ‘all public figures who dare to openly criticize the actions of state institutions’.
Demonstrations over the arrest of Mr. Hazel began on Tuesday when thousands of people took to the streets of Barcelona and other cities in Catalonia to demand release.
The protests continued on Wednesday, spreading to Madrid, the capital and other cities.
According to local news reports, Spanish police arrested 19 people in Madrid and 29 in Catalonia on Wednesday. Protesters were seen throwing stones and other objects at police, smashing windows and setting fire to rubbish bins.
Journalists at the scene posted images and videos on social media showing large crowds of protesters, many of whom were wearing surgical masks, as they rallied against police officers in riot gear.
“Pablo, comrade, you are not alone,” said one crowd roared in Lleida on Wednesday, the Catalan city where Mr. Hazel was arrested.
Authorities in Madrid said on Wednesday that access to a central train station was restricted due to disturbances to ‘public order’.
Police officers and mostly young protesters also Puerta del Sol, a square in Madrid, collided as the protesters stopped by the police to reach the parliament building. According to the European Spanish news agency Europa Press, five officers sustained minor injuries in the clashes in Madrid.
A Reuters journalist in Barcelona was among the injured when officers fired rubber bullets into a crowd, the news agency reported. Demonstrations also took place in other Spanish cities, including Granada, where four protesters were arrested, according to local newspapers.
Mr. Hasél, whose real name is Pablo Rivadulla Duró, was a popular provocateur before being sentenced to prison in 2018.
He accused the Spanish police of brutality, compared judges to Nazis and expressed support for ETA, a Basque separatist group that disbanded two years ago after waging one of modern Europe’s longest-running terrorist campaigns.
In 2018, the Spanish Supreme Court sentenced just over two years to prison for glorifying terrorism and insulting the monarchy. The charges focused on his incendiary tweets and a song he wrote about King Juan Carlos, who resigned in 2014. A judge later reduced the sentence to nine months.
Last month, Mr. Hasél orders him to report to jail in mid-February.
Public pressure prompted the Justice Department on Monday to announce that it intends to change the country’s criminal code to reduce sentences related to the type of speech offenses for which Hasél has been sentenced. The ministry does not give details about its plan.
Mr. Hasél was arrested on Tuesday after he and about 50 supporters locked themselves in a building at the University of Lleida.
“They will never silence us!” he shouted at reporters as police led him to a patrol car, the El País newspaper reported. “Death to the fascist state!”
In his last Twitter message before he was locked up, Mr. Hazel issued a warning to his supporters.
“Tomorrow it could be you,” he wrote.
Spain has a history of sentencing people for comments made on social media, mostly based on the law banning the glorification of terrorism.
Some of these sentences were pronounced against young and unknown social media users, but others targeted more prominent figures.
A Spanish rapper, known as Valtònyc, fled to Belgium in 2018 after being jailed for writing lyrics that, according to the court, were a glorified terrorism and insulting the monarchy.
The rapper, whose real name is Josep Miquel Arenas, has since been fighting Spain’s attempts to extradite him from Belgium.
The supporters of mr. Hasél includes some Spanish politicians, director Pedro Almodóvar and film star Javier Bardem. amnesty international called his arrest an excessive and excessive restriction on his freedom of expression. ‘
“No one should be prosecuted just because they express themselves on social media or sing something unpleasant or shocking,” Esteban Beltrán, the director of Amnesty International Spain, said in a statement hours before Mr Hasél’s arrest. “Statements that do not clearly and directly incite violence cannot be criminalized.”
But the rapper’s legal problems could continue for some time to come.
Mr. Hazél’s term of nine months could be extended to more than two years because he refused to pay fines related to his sentence.
Police are also investigating alleged attempts to break into a government building in Lleida during a protest two years ago over the detention in Germany of Carles Puigdemont, the former leader of Catalonia.
Raphael Minder reported from Madrid, and Mike Ives of Hong Kong.