El Nacional.cat

Every day more and more cases are added to the list of violations of the right to freedom of expression in Spain. All kinds of groups have been victims: rappers, journalists, artists, actors…

Article traduït per AnnA (@annuskaodena)

Below, we have gathered the main cases registered up to date.

Exaltation of terrorism

Valtonyc, exiled

For now, rapper Valtonyc is the only one exiled with sentences related to freedom of expression. He was sentenced by the Supreme Court to three and a half years in prison for crimes of exaltation of terrorism and humiliation of the victims, insults to King Juan Carlos I and threats to Jorge Campos from ‘Actúa Baleares’ political party. All this, because of the lyrics of his songs.

Rather than entering prison, the rapper, from Mallorca, chose to flee to Belgium. His defence His defence says that Europe is the best place where their rights can be guaranteed and they intend to appeal the ruling to the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg.

Offense: Verses such as “I want to communicate a message of hope to the Spanish people, ETA is a great nation”, literal phrase of one of Rajoy’s slips in 2007, “Let’s see if you realise, like Bárcenas case, I lose the papers and I shout GORA ETA in the barracks” or “De Cospedal would not laugh so much in a hole at forty degrees”.
https://youtu.be/H9QXVS-gb2o

Pablo Hasel, 2 years of prison

Pablo Rivadulla, also a rapper, known as Pablo Hasel, has been sentenced by the National Court to two years and one day in prison for the crimes of exalting terrorism and insults to the Crown and to the State institutions for messages on Twitter and a song uploaded to YouTube. As well as the prison conviction, he has to pay a fine of 24,300 euros.

Hasel has filed an appeal. If neither the National High Court nor, later, the Supreme Court accept the appeals, Hasel must go into prison because he was already sentenced, back in 2014, to two years for exalting terrorism.

Offense: Verses such as “My brother enters PP headquarters shouting ¡Gora ETA!”, “Death sentence now to the pathetic Princesses” o “The GRAPO acted in self-defence against imperialism and its crimes”.

La Insurgencia, 12 people sentenced

La Insurgencia, a group of rappers, were called to testify at the National High Court before Judge Carmen Lamela in November 2016, accused of exalting terrorist organizations such as GRAPO. In December 2017, they were sentenced to two years and one day. Because of this additional day added to the sentence, prison entry of all twelve members is mandatory despite having no criminal record.

The sentence counted on the dissenting opinion of Judge Ángela Murillo, who considered that they wanted “to obtain notoriety, reaffirming their personalities, ultimately, to get attention by other routes”. The group has appealed the sentence to avoid entering prison.

Offense: Verses such as “I know which side I am on, the one of the oppressed, the exploited, remembering how fascists flew with the GRAPO”, “it’s a disgrace that the Bourbons have not yet been subjected to any explosions” or “guillotines are needed for the pigs leading the police”.

The puppeteers of Madrid, prison for one hyphen

Two puppeteers were arrested and sent to provisional prison with no bail at the beginning of February 2016 after representing their show ‘The witch and Don Cristóbal’ during the Carnival. They were accused of exaltation of terrorism and incitement to hatred for showing a small banner which said ‘Gora Alka-ETA’, a word play with ‘Gora Alkaeta’ (long live the mayor).

They spent 5 days in prison, until the Prosecutor’s office changed their mind and asked for them to be freed. The accusation for exaltation of terrorism was filed in June and at the beginning of 2017 they were acquitted of the crime of incitement to hatred. The case was followed with great expectation and indignation and their show was represented in cities all over Spain.

Offense: https://youtu.be/-9SeGbYqEPw

Cassandra, sentences that blow up

Cassandra Vera, @kira_95 on Twitter, was reported in 2016 for her tweets joking about the death of Carrero Blanco. The lawsuit was filed by the Civil Guard -when the girl turned 18 years old- after finding her tweets during Operation Spider, designed to pursue the exaltation of terrorism in social networks.

Cassandra based her defence on freedom of expression but was sentenced by the National Court to a year in prison and seven years of disqualification. His case raised a lot of controversy and, she even received a letter of support from Carrero Blanco’s granddaughter. Finally, the sentence was overturned in 2018 by the Supreme Court, reasoning that her statements were just “humorous” regarding an event that, after 44 years, could be considered “history”.

Offense: Tweets such as “ETA promoted a policy against official cars combined with a space program”, “Spiderman VS Carrero Blanco” o “Kissinger gave Carrero Blanco a piece of the moon, ETA paid for his trip”.

César Strawberry, prison for his tweets about GRAPO and ETA

The singer of Def con Dos, César Augusto Montaña Lehmann, was sentenced, in 2017, to one year in prison and six and a half years of total disqualification for exaltation of terrorism and humiliation of ETA’s and GRAPO’s victims. The National Court acquitted him after considering his messages to be a part of his artistic side, but the prosecutor appealed to the Supreme Court, and he was sentenced one year later. He is accused of writing a series of tweets that he published between November 2013 and January 2014.

Offense: Tweets such as:

El fascismo sin complejos de Aguirre me hace añorar hasta a los GRAPO.

— César Strawberry (@CesarStrawberry) November 11, 2013

A Ortega Lara habría que secuestrarle ahora.

— César Strawberry (@CesarStrawberry) January 27, 2014

Franco, Serrano Súñer, Arias Navarro, Fraga, Blas Piñar… Si no les das lo que a Carrero Blanco, la longevidad se pone siempre de su lado.

— César Strawberry (@CesarStrawberry) January 28, 2014

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