Dozens of people were injured during protests in several cities in Spain over the arrest of rapper Pablo Asel. This is reported by the ambulance service of Catalonia on Twitter and local media.
According to El Mundo, demonstrations took place in a number of Catalan cities, where the musician was arrested. In Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, Vic and Valencia, thousands of people took to the streets, and protests escalated into clashes with the police. Protesters threw bottles and stones at police officers, erected barricades, and set fire to garbage cans and motorcycles. In Girona, protesters set fire to a bank door, and in Lleida, local units of the People's Party and the Socialist Party of Catalonia were pelted with eggs.
A total of 33 people were injured, eight of them were hospitalized, emergency services said. Another 15 people were detained by the police.
The rapper was sentenced to nine months in prison over tweets and lyrics that glorified terrorism and defamed the royal family and government agencies. Asel was supposed to volunteer to go to prison, but instead barricaded himself at the University of Lleida along with his supporters. A day later, the police arrested the musician and took him to a nearby prison, where he will begin serving his sentence.
