16th February, 2021. [Video: Pablo Hasél being arrested by policemen and taken inside a police car while he shouts “mai ens aturaran, mai ens callaran, mort a l’estat feixista! mort a l’estat feixista!”, which means “they will never stop us, they will never shut us up, death to the fascist state! death to the fascist state!” in the Catalan language]
The rap singer from Lleida (Catalonia) Pablo Hasél being arrested for the lyrics of his songs and the content of his tweets. He has been sentenced to 2 years, 4 months and 15 days of prison for “glorifying terrorism” and “insulting the [Spanish] monarchy” according to the Spanish judicial system.
He refused to turn himself in, and instead locked himself with comrades who showed up inside the University of Lleida, as they barricaded the doors and people blocked the access of the policemen in solidarity. After 2 hours displacing the protestors, the anti-riot police accessed the third floor, where Hasél was, and took him directly to prison.
Spain is the country in the world with the most artists sentenced to jail (source: The state of artistic freedom 2020, FreeMuse).
More than Turkey, more than Iran, more than China. Spain, and disproportionately national minorities (Catalans and Basques). And the European Union allows it.
In Spain, you can go on TV and openly give support to fascism, you can send death threats to people from national minorities and/or political dissidents, you can do the fascist salute on the streets and shout “viva Franco” and “arriba España” while circling cultural centres of national minorities (mostly Catalans and Basques) and calling for the need to “shed their blood”, the Spanish army can call for the execution of 26 million citizens ... but you cannot take a stand against the Spanish monarchy (remember Josep Valtònyc is still on exile for having said “the Bourbons [dynasty of the Spanish monarchy] are thieves”) and wish them the guillotine.
People like Pablo Hasél and Valtònyc were not even famous when they released these “criminal” songs, they were just people like any other, with access to internet and something to say. Spain came for them like it can come for any of us, like it came for our parents and grandparents. Like they came for Adri, for Tamara Carrasco, for the Altsasua boys, for Dani Gallardo, for Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez, for our democratically-elected government still in jail and exile, for everyone arrested and threatened and beaten by the police in strikes and demonstrations, for the people who tweeted jokes about the death of Carrero Blanco (the fascist admiral who could’ve been Franco’s successor as fascist dictator if he had not been killed by ETA), for the people who posted on Facebook comments against the Spanish police’s brutality on Catalan people... People like you, people like me.
LLIBERTAT PABLO HASÉL
