Barcelona saw a sixth consecutive night of unrest Sunday night as protests meant to show support with a rapper imprisoned on charges relating to slander against Spain’s government turned violent.
Graffiti artists gathered to create a painting that criticized Spain’s King Felipe VI and his father, the former King Juan Carlos I, as a way to show their support for Spanish rapper Pablo Hasel after his arrest and imprisonment, the Associated Press reported.
The protests quickly turned violent as night approached with protesters marching through the city throwing everything from rocks, firecrackers, bottles, and trash at police officers and vandalizing storefronts, according to AP.
Barcelona sees sixth night of protests for jailed rapper https://t.co/FQ3PnJR5bi
— The Independent (@Independent) February 21, 2021
Hasel is accused of slander and the glorification of terrorism in his tweets and lyrics after comparing Spanish judges to Nazis, in addition to referencing the former King of Spain as being a mafia boss, NBC News reported. (RELATED: Mark Steyn: ‘Today Free Speech Is Openly Mocked As Some Kind Of Right-Wing Fetish’)
The rapper was arrested last Tuesday after he missed his deadline to turn himself in. He locked himself inside a university in the city of Lleida in order to try to avoid arrest, and will be serving a nine-month prison sentence.
Since the rapper’s arrest over 100 people have been arrested as a result of the ongoing protests, with more than 35 arrests taking place in Barcelona or surrounding places, according to AP.
Hasel’s arrest has sparked conversation over the reformation of Spain’s laws regarding freedom of speech, according to NBC news.