Some tweets and a song criticizing the royal family and the police have commissioned rapper Pablo Hassel a prison in Spain who, After a nine-month prison sentence for the crime of glorifying terrorism and insulting the monarchyYesterday, he was arrested by dozens of Mossos de Escuadra agents. The artist had been holed up in the administration building of the University of Lleida, in north-eastern Catalonia and had been previously protected About fifty fans Who stacked chairs and benches to block the police path.
The 32-year-old rapper shouted as he passed in front of the TV cameras, “We will prevail and they will never dissuade us with all their repression!” The battle for freedom of expression, which received great support, like the one carried out by the director Pedro Almodóvar and the actor Javier Bardem, who took place with 100,000 other people, Amnesty International Petition Where the rapper was asked to avoid imprisonment and change the so-called muzzle law of 2015: Pablo Hassel imprisoned the sword of Damocles on the heads of all public figures who He dares to openly criticize state institutions – The text reads – we realize that if we allow Pablo to prison, tomorrow they will be able to go after each of us, so that they can silence every venting of the dissidents.
The arrest warrant was issued yesterday by the National Court after that The artist did not appear voluntarily in prison And start serving your sentence. Last week, surprisingly, without specifically mentioning the Hassel case, the left-wing coalition in the Spanish government announced that it wanted changes to the penal code. To abolish prison sentences for offenses related to freedom of expression, Especially if artistic and cultural activities are involved. However, the proposal was rejected by conservative opposition from the Popular Party and the far right of Fox.
The rapper was convicted in 2018 for a song about ex-king Juan Carlos and 64 tweetsThey were all published between 2014 and 2016, which, in addition to describing the former monarch as a mafia leader, accused police of torturing and killing protesters and migrants, inciting rebellion, and raising ETA and Grabo, two known militants. Groups are now extinct. But it wasn’t the first time Hassel had been in trouble with the law: he had been charged on three more occasions Aggression, trespassing, insulting property, appreciation of armed groups. Already in 2014 he was sentenced to two years in prison but the sentence was suspended.
There is a precedent: Another rapper, Valtonycapper, was convicted of a similar crime in 2018 but fled to Belgium and The extradition request submitted by the Spanish authorities was rejected. Other recent cases included puppeteers spreading political satire and bloggers joking about the murders committed by General Francisco Franco’s dictatorship between 1939 and 1975.
February 16, 2021 (Change to February 16, 2021 | 2:32 PM)
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