New protests in Spain over the jailing of rapper’s backers

Several hundred protesters marched Saturday in Barcelona in opposition to a Spanish authorities crackdown following a violent outcry over the imprisonment of Pablo Hasl, an anti-establishment artist.
Saturday’s march passed off amid a heavy police presence, winding by a number of avenues of the Catalan regional capital. Protesters walked behind a banner that known as for the discharge of Hasl and his jailed supporters.
The rapper is serving 9 months for inciting terrorism  he has praised two now-defunct armed teams liable for killing over 900 folks in Spain  and for refusing to pay a positive for insulting Spain’s former king.
His arrest on Feb. 16 triggered a mixture of peaceable and violent protests which have at occasions ended within the looting of retailers in a number of cities. The case has additionally invigorated a debate over the boundaries of freedom of speech in Spain.
The ruling left-wing coalition has pledged to launch a authorized reform to get rid of jail phrases for offenses involving freedom of speech. The coalition’s junior accomplice, the far-left United We Can celebration, has filed a petition to pardon Hasl.

 Eight suspects have been jailed for being in a bunch that protested the rapper’s imprisonment by setting fireplace to a police van through which an officer narrowly escaped the flames. 

They face potential expenses of tried murder, assaulting legislation enforcement officers and forming a part of a felony group.