Live
Audio Only
Spain's Supreme Court confirmed Tuesday rapper Jose Miguel Arenas, known as Valtonyc, will serve three and half years in prison for insulting, slandering Spain's monarchs and "exalting terrorism." Arenas was found guilty by a national tribunal on Feb. 7.
RELATED:
Spain: Pensioners to Protest ‘Miserable’ Public Policies
Valtonyc had argued he was exercising his right to free speech and artistic creation, but the court dismissed his defense saying the songs he wrote and published via internet include support of terrorist groups and attacks against the king and his family.
Among the lyrics that landed Arenas in prison are “the bourbon king and his moves, don’t know if he was hunting elephants or whoring, these are a thing one cannot explain, to score the bullseye he used his brother.”
In another he attacked the Spanish politician and aristocrat Esperanza Aguirre who is involved in a corruption scandal, saying “I would kill Esperanza Aguirre, but before, I would force her to see how her son lives among rats.”
Referring to ETA, the armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization considered by Spain as a terrorist organization, Arenas wrote in one of his songs “seven bullets of Iñaki Bilbao’s Glock on the judge” in a reference to a threat by the former ETA members to the presiding judge in his case.
According to the court, the expressions go beyond political solidarity or ideology, constituting “a praise, not of political objectives but of the violent means used by the cited terrorist organizations.”
Arenas’ defense has announced they will appeal to the Constitutional Court arguing the sentence against him “makes no sense.
Newsletter
