LLEIDA, Spain (AP) – A rapper in Spain and dozens of his followers locked themselves in a university building on Monday in the artist’s latest attempt to avoid a prison sentence for insulting the country’s monarchy and praise terrorism.
The case of Pablo Hasél, 32, has attracted attention in Spain and has been linked to the government’s sudden announcement to change a national law that is considered to reduce freedom of expression. More than 200 artists, including film director Pedro Almodóvar and actor Javier Bardem, signed a petition last week to support the rapper.
The artist, whose real name is Pablo Rivadulla Duró, will serve a reduced sentence from 2018 of nine months in prison for tweets and songs he published between 2014 and 2016 criticizing the Spanish royal family and praising an extremist group armed with left Spanish already gone. .
“I will not allow them to tell me what I should think, feel or say,” Hasel told The Associated Press on Monday afternoon. “This serves as an added incentive for me to keep writing the same songs.”
Known primarily for his often radical anti-establishment criticisms, he has had previous convictions for assault and praise by armed extremist groups, although he did not serve any time behind bars after the suspension of a previous two-year prison term.
This time his imprisonment seemed imminent. The country’s National High Court issued an arrest warrant on Monday after a ten-day period for his jail time to expire voluntarily on Friday.
But the artist said he would not pass without showing resistance and drawing attention to his case. On Monday, accompanied by about fifty supporters, Hasél barricaded himself inside the rectory of the University of Lleida, in the northeastern region of Catalonia.
The police need special permission – which has been granted in this case – from the academic authorities to enter the university buildings, which have been the scene of protests in the past.
Challenging, the rapper tweeted, “They’ll have to come in to take me away and imprison me.”
He told the AP that Monday’s events were “a call to organize our solidarity and take the pressure off the street.”
“There is a lot of solidarity from people who understand that this is not just an attack on me,” Hasel added. “But also against our fundamental democratic freedoms. Freedoms that the state continually represses. When we face aggression against ourselves, we have to give a collective response. “
The Spanish left-wing coalition government unexpectedly announced last week that it would make changes to the country’s penal code to eliminate prison sentences for crimes related to freedom of expression. He did not specifically mention Hasel or set a timetable for the changes.
The proposal is rejected by the conservative opposition popular party and the far-right party Vox.
In 2015, the People’s Party government made changes to the code under a new public safety law, known as the “Gag Law,” which have long been criticized by human rights groups and international organizations for potentially limiting the freedom of expression of the name of protection of state and religious institutions.
“Pablo Hasél’s imprisonment leaves the sword hanging over the heads of all public figures who dare to openly criticize the actions of even more obvious state institutions,” the artists ’petition said.
“We are aware that if we allow Pablo’s imprisonment, they could come after any of us tomorrow, until they have managed to silence any sigh of dissent,” he added.
The Spanish branch of Amnesty International has also defended Hasel and urged the government to introduce legal changes. In a statement last week, the group of international campaigns for international rights pointed to other social media users, journalists and artists who have been similarly convicted in the past.
“Expressions that do not clearly and directly incite violence cannot be criminalized,” said Esteban Beltrán, director of the AI branch.
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Ciarán Giles and Aritz Parra in Madrid also contributed.