Protesters in Barcelona have taken to the streets for a seventh day in a row. They set fires and blocked roads in furious demonstrations against the arrest of rapper Pablo Hasel, who was convicted of insulting the King of Spain and praising terrorism.
Crowds of protesters set up makeshift barricades across Via Laietana, before setting fire to the cauldrons and barricades.
The protests came days after similar demonstrations over the artist's arrest. Protesters threw objects at police, who responded with rubber bullets. One protester reportedly lost an eye when she was hit with a rubber bullet, the activist group IRIDIA claimed.
Hasel, whose real name is Pablo Rivadulla Duro, was arrested earlier on Tuesday after barricading himself inside the University of Lleida in western Catalonia.
Less than two weeks ago, he was sentenced to nine months in prison and fined for calling former monarch Juan Carlos I a 'thief' and a 'mafia boss' and for a social media post praising GRAPO, a Spanish Maoist terrorist group.
The rapper's conviction and arrest was not his first run-in with the law. In 2014, Hasel was found guilty of expressing support for the Basque separatist terrorist group ETA, but his sentence was suspended in 2019.
