Violent protests over the arrest of the rapper and accusations of police brutality, Catalonia shouts for fifth day

Mossos arrested 34 people on Saturday and took the total to nearly 100 for the week.

Hasel himself was detained on Tuesday after Catalan riot police stormed the University of Lledia, near Barcelona, ​​where the rapper and his supporters were blocking themselves.

The video of the arrest shows the defiant rapper shouting, “You will never defeat us! You will never defeat us, we will resist until we achieve victory.”

Hasel had until February 12 to surrender to police after the Spanish Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s conviction in May 2018 against the rapper, whose full name is Pablo Rivadulla Duro.

The conviction was for supporting terrorism, and also for slander and libel against the Spanish monarchy, through his messages on social media, according to a copy of the court sentence and a press statement in the Supreme Court. He was sentenced to nine months in prison.

The Spanish government announced last week that it would remove prisoners for violations of freedom of expression, but it was not clear when the changes would be made.

“How can you put someone in jail for expressing their ideas?” When asked, Galofré said why she attended Saturday night.

“I do not agree with the loot, and there are always people who will exploit social movements to cause chaos,” Galofré said. “The protests were peaceful until the police intervened.”

In Galofré’s hometown of Sabadell, a city north of Barcelona, ​​protests were passive and without incident, she added.

A much smaller demonstration took place in the Spanish capital Madrid, where about 100 people sang for Hasel’s freedom.

Five nights of protests

Joan Colet, a 16-year-old student, demonstrated on Plaça de Catalunya on Saturday night and saw people from the main rally group split up and start looting.

“A lot of people are benefiting, they’re not here to protest,” he told CNN. “They have different motives.”

The police, some protesters beaten with punches and skuimballe other fired, Colet said, adding that the barriers established by the protesters was to protect.

“We’re tired of people going to jail for just writing something on social media,” he said. “It’s about Pablo’s freedom, but also Spanish freedom and freedom of speech.”

“In a full democracy, and Spain’s democracy is a full democracy, the use of force is unacceptable. There is no exception to this rule,” he told a news conference. “There is no reason, place or situation that can justify the use of force.”

Accounts of police violence

When contacted by CNN, Mossos said the person trying to help Cornellà had criminal records and that he pushed one of the agents when he interfered with the arrest.

A woman was injured in the eye after a projectile hit her on Tuesday, said photojournalist Àngel García, who captured the scene.

“I was standing in front of the riot police when they shot,” he told CNN by telephone on Saturday. I turned around and saw a woman with her hand on her eyes, full of blood. ‘

García said the woman was hit by a rubber police bullet and she lost her eye, which CNN could not independently confirm.

In response to a CNN request for comment, Mossos said she may only use foam balls when maintaining public order. It is currently investigating the incident.

“The police acted brutally,” said Oriol Estival, a 22-year-old geography student at the University of Barcelona who attended the protests. “There was great harassment by the police and unfair arrests of people who did nothing.”

Estival said people looted the stores of luxury fashion brands, but said most participants were peaceful. Like Galofré, he said he was not only protesting Hasel’s arrest, but also the police’s brutality and ‘the rise of the far right and fascism in Catalonia’.