Spain protesters take to streets in response to arrest of rapper over tweets and lyrics

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Spain protesters take to streets in response to arrest of rapper over tweets and lyrics

Emily Braganza | U. Bristol Law School, GB

February 19, 2021 07:55:30 am

The arrest of Spanish rapper Pablo Hasél for allegedly glorifying terrorism and insulting the monarchy sparked protests attended by thousands of persons across Spain on Tuesday. Hasél’s charges are in relation to a series of his tweets and song lyrics.

Hasél barricaded himself alongside supporters on Tuesday inside the University of Lleida to avoid his prison sentence, but was shortly after arrested by Spanish authorities. Protests arose in multiple Spanish cities including Barcelona, Spain’s second-largest city and the capital of Catalonia, and Valencia following his arrest. Rubbish bins were set alight and objects such as batons and foam projectiles were thrown at Spanish authorities. Thirty-three individuals were injured, and 15 protesters were arrested. Protests continued throughout the week.

Hasél was convicted in 2018 over Twitter messages and song lyrics that allegedly praised terrorism and insulted the Spanish monarchy. Under Spanish law, prison sentences can be imposed for charges of glorified terrorism and insulting the monarchy. However, the use of such sentences is criticized by organizations including Amnesty International, which in a 2018 report, found that the country’s counter-terrorism laws give rise to a chilling effect on freedom of expression.

Last May the Spanish Supreme Court, Tribunal Supremo, reduced Hasél’s prison sentence from two years to nine months. Amnesty International criticized the conviction, with Esteban Beltrán, Director of Amnesty International Spain, calling it, “an excessive and disproportionate restriction on his freedom of expression.” Last week, hundreds of Spanish public figures signed a petition against the conviction.

“In Barcelona, during the third consecutive night of riots and acts of vandalism, 8 people have been arrested for public disorder,” Catalonia’s police force said in a tweeted update. “There are numerous burnt containers, street furniture and motorcycles, as well as several establishments with broken glass.”

In response to the conviction, the Spanish government recently announced that it would look into reforming the country’s free speech laws.

This article was translated from English into Spanish by JURIST Editor Daniela Comesanas Carmona. To view the translated article in Spanish click here.

Este artículo fue traducido de Inglés a Español por la editora de JURIST Daniela Comesanas Carmona. Para ver el artículo traducido en Español, da click aquí.

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail

On April 16, 1963, an incarcerated Martin Luther King, Jr. (arrested for demonstrating in defiance of a court order) wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to a published statement by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama.

Part of the letter read: We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. Read the full text of the Letter.