THERE was fury around the world yesterday after a pro-Catalan independence Spanish rapper was arrested after a police stand-off and taken to prison … over his lyrics.
Pablo Hasel was convicted in 2018 and jailed for insulting the Bourbons – Spain’s royal family – the police, and allegedly glorifying terrorism in songs and tweets he wrote between 2014 and 2016.
In one he called former king Juan Carlos a mafia boss and compared a Spanish court to the Nazis.
Hasel – real name Pablo Rivadulla Duro – was due to service a nine-month sentence and the deadline for him to voluntarily hand himself in expired on Monday, when he barricaded himself inside a building at the University of Lleida in Catalonia, along with dozens of his supporters.
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The case of the 32-year-old is far from isolated – ask rapper Valtonyc, who is in exile, or the prolific tweeter Cassandra Vera.
They said: “There are several interpreters convicted because the law is so broad and dry that anything can be interpreted as a glorification of a terrorist act, even if it occurred a long time ago.”
No són imatges del franquisme.
— CUP Països Catalans (@cupnacional) February 16, 2021
Aquest matí al nostre país han empresonat a un artista.#LlibertatPabloHasel pic.twitter.com/64qbAUGKEz
Pictures of his arrest flooded social media and news outlets as Hasel was led away by police.
However, in one of his final tweets, he remained defiant: “I stayed here without going into exile to contribute more to spreading the message, to the mobilisation and above all to the organisation.”
The hashtag #LlibertatPabloHasel is trending on Twitter.
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