The arrest and subsequent imprisonment of Community and Anti-fascist Rapper Pablo Hasel in Spain brings to the fore the question of freedom of speech in the Spanish state.
Hasel said he would go to prison “with my head held high” if he was taken away. “We cannot allow them to dictate what we can say, what we can feel or what we can do,”.
He is charged with “glorifying terrorism and insulting royalty”. The Spanish government said last week it planned to reduce the penalty for this, but the charge is so broad and sweeping that any example of justifying a terrorist act, even if it took place a long time ago, can lead to a conviction.
This is the latest in a long history of the Spanish state clamping down on freedom of expression and we must not let it continue.
We stand in solidarity with Pablo Hasel.