Spain: Court Ratifies Rapper's Two Year Sentence Amid Protests

Spanish judges condemned on Thursday rapper Pablo Hasel to two years and a half in prison, in addition to a nine-month sentence that sparked violent protests across the country as the social unrest over his imprisonment enters its third day.

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The Lleida court, chaired by magistrate María Lucía Jiménez imposed the sanction, alleging that the rapper threatened a witness in a trial against two police officers. This, after considering as evidence a tweet from 2017 where the artist published a picture with the photo of the witness denouncing that the process was corrupt.

According to the prosecutors, Hasel had been sentenced in 2014 for allegedly praising the terrorism of ETA, the Grapo, Terra Lliure, and Al Qaeda in his songs. The National Court suspended this punishment in 2019.

The rapper was finally jailed two days ago after being charged for publishing a Twitter thread between 2014 and 2018 criticizing the monarchy and the civil guard and comparing the royal family to parasites.

On February 8, more than 200 Spanish artists, including the filmmakers Pedro Almodóvar and Fernando Trueba, the singer Joan Manuel Serrat, the actor Javier Bardem and the pop band Vetusta Morla, published a manifesto demanding the release of Hasel and asking for respect to the freedom of expression.

"The Spanish State has come to head the list of countries that have retaliated the most against artists for the content of their songs. If we let Pablo go to jail, they can go after any of us tomorrow," the statement remarks.

More protests are expected on Thursday after Wednesday demonstrations raged in at least 30 cities.