Young woman injured during protests by rapper Pablo Hasél in Barcelona lost an eye

A young woman who took part in the protests Tuesday against the imprisonment of Spanish rapper Pablo Hasél, jailed for insulting tweets against the monarchy and the security forces, lost an eye due to the impact received by a foam projectile fired by the Catalan police, said the human rights center Irídia.

As reported Iridia, the events took place between 8:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. in Barcelona. The young woman was quickly treated by an emergency medical team and was admitted to the hospital clinic in Barcelona. At first the diagnosis indicated that the wound was not serious, but after an examination the bursting of the eyeball and its irreparability. The 19-year-old will undergo surgery again.

Irídia has requested citizen collaboration via social networks to obtain images and testimonies that corroborate the version that the injury was caused by a foam projectile fired by riot officers from the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan police.

For his part, the Catalan Minister of the Interior, Miquel Sàmper, announced this morning that confidential information will be opened to investigate what happened.

The first protests took place Tuesday night in Catalonia, hours after police arrested the 32-year-old rapper to begin serving a nine-month prison sentence.

Tuesday’s protest was cruel against the Mossos police cordon which protected the national police station and threw stones, bottles and firecrackers at their officers. He also dragged burning containers. During the police intervention to push them back, the officers fired foam projectiles and, allegedly, one of them hit the young woman.

The protests spread to Madrid on Wednesday, where hundreds of protesters clashed with police in the central Puerta del Sol, shouting “Pablo Hasél, freedom!

Club in hand the officers indicted the demonstrators on several occasions, that they responded with bottle drops and then smashed the windows of some stores nearby.

In the capital there were 19 prisonersthe government delegation in Madrid said Thursday. Emergency services reported 55 injured, including 35 police officers.

There have also been violent incidents in the Andalusian town of Grenade, where protesters burned trash cans. Authorities reported four inmates.

In Barcelona, protesters threw objects at police on Wednesday and erected barricades which they then set on fire. The officers dissolved them again with foam balls.

In all Catalonia, the Mossos d’Esquadra claimed to have 33 people arrested Wednesday. Medical sources spoke eight minor injuries.

Tuesday night, 15 people had already been arrested in Catalonia, due to the protests that resulted injured 30 people, including 19 police officers.

Hasél, who had a criminal record, entered prison for a crime of glorifying terrorism in tweets published between 2014 and 2016, which earned him a conviction in 2018.

He described King Juan Carlos I as a “mafioso” and a “thief”, accused the police of having killed and tortured migrants and demonstrators and mentioned as referring to people involved in terrorist crimes.

His case sparked a new debate over freedom of expression in Spain. Amnesty International called the sentence “disproportionate” and, before his imprisonment, some 200 personalities, including director Pedro Almodóvar and actor Javier Bardem, signed a manifesto in support of the rapper.

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