‘Our incarceration must come at a cost,’ say rappers

Pablo Hasél, Valtònyc and Elgio, three Hip Hop artists sentenced to prison by Spanish courts, are coming together to denounce what they deem as an attack on freedom of speech. “Our incarceration can’t come at no cost for the State,” they said at a joint press conference in the Catalan town of Sabadell on Saturday.

The rappers called on people to take to the streets in order to defend their rights. “Our freedom, as well as yours, depends on whether it’s more costly for them to have us in prison than free,” said Hasél, a Catalan rapper.

Last week, Spain’s National Court sentenced Hasél to two years in prison for glorifying terrorism and defaming the crown and state institutions in his lyrics and in Twitter messages. The court also fined him 24,300 euros. The same court sentenced Alex Nicolaev (Elgio) and his bandmates in ‘La Insurgencia’ to two years in jail for similar offenses. Josep Miquel Arenas Beltrán, the Mallorcan rapper known as Valtònyc, was sentenced by the Supreme Court to three years and a half in prison.