They arrested the Spanish rapper Pablo Hasel, condemned …

Spanish rapper Pablo Hasel arrested this Tuesday by the police, after being barricaded at the University of Lleida. The artist had been sentenced to prison for his tweets and songs against the monarchy and the security forces. Various organizations, including Amnesty International, have expressed their support for Hasel and claim that this is a case of censorship.

“They will never arrest us, they will not bend us!” Shouted the rapper, while the police escorted him out of the design office located in Catalonia, where he was locked up yesterday with a dozen activists.

“Death to the fascist state”, he shouted, before the Mossos d’Esquadra (regional police) made him get into the police vehicle, amid the boos of the supporters who were demonstrating in this town located in 150 kilometers west of Barcelona.

The arrest took place four days after the expiration of the deadline given by the Audiencia Nacional, a Madrid-based high court, to voluntarily enter prison to serve the nine months sentence for “exaltation of terrorism” and “insults to the crown”.

A few hours before his arrest, Hasel posted “the tweets they’re going to jail me for in minutes or hours”. “Literally to explain reality. Tomorrow it can be you, ”warned the artist. Rapper he criticized the monarchy, called the police force “shitty mercenaries” and accused them of torturing and murdering protesters and immigrants.

Hasel also issued a press release in which he reaffirmed the importance of making a massive demand for free speech. “I will not be the only political prisoner, State prisons are full of revolutionaries who have represented us fighting for their democratic rights and freedoms. In fact, part of my sentence is to explain it and be in solidarity with them, ”he warned.

Hasel has received support from areas such as intellectual, culture, art and journalism, with manifestos signed, among others, by famous filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar or singer Joan Manuel Serrat, while organizations such as ‘Amnesty International (AI) considered imprisonment.

Esteban Beltrán, spokesperson for Amnesty International, noted that “In Spain, freedom of expression is threatened”. “International law sets clear limits on freedom of expression, which lead to the possible direct commission of a crime. And in Spain, it does not respond to international laws, ”he said in an interview with local media.

Faced with the scandal, the government of socialist Pedro Sánchez promised last week that it would propose “a review of crimes linked to excess in the exercise of freedom of expression”, with the aim of imposing “dissuasive” penalties and not from prison.

Hasel, 33, is one of 15 Spanish artists who in recent years have fallen victim to censorship in Spain, where the previous conservative government of Mariano Rajoy toughened laws and approved harsh enforcement of the Criminal Code to intimidate political dissidents amid growing social unrest.