Spain: 109 People Arrested Over Rapper Pablo Hasél Protests

The protests over the imprisonment of rapper Pablo Hasel last week, which have spread throughout Spain, although with their epicenter in Catalonia, counted on Sunday night number six, adding new arrests, particularly in Barcelona.

In the autonomous community of Catalonia, the Mossos d'Esquadra (local police, different from the National Police) have arrested 109 people since last Tuesday the 16th, when the protest demonstrations began to demand the freedom of Hasel, imprisoned for crimes of glorification of terrorism and insult to the Crown.

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For six consecutive nights, street violence and police repression have been the protagonists after the demonstrations in support of the rapper, as there have been numerous public disorders, such as burning garbage containers; throwing blunt objects against the Mossos agents and looting of stores in Barcelona.

The police, for their part, have responded with the use of rubber bullets, which have caused, at least, the loss of the eye of one of the demonstrators; at the same time there have been reports of excessive use of force against the protesters.

Most of the political forces have condemned these riots, although the leftist group Unidas Podemos, which is part of the Spanish government, has refused to join the chorus of condemnations, considering it "hypocritical."

The head of Interior of the Catalan Government, Miquel Sàmper, said yesterday that, in his view, "forcefulness" of "all political and social forces" to ask that the protests did not lead to riots was missing and considered that what happened in Catalonia since Tuesday "is not the right to demonstrate."