Eight protesters in pre-trial detention for burning a police van in Barcelona

Eight protesters arrested during last weekend’s riots in Barcelona have been sent to prison while awaiting trial for allegedly trying to burn a police van with an officer inside.

The detainees are charged with attempted murder, attacking public authorities, public disorder, damaging public goods, gathering illegally, and belonging to a criminal organization.

Of the eight protesters, six are Italian citizens—five men and one woman—in addition to one French woman and a Spanish woman.   

After carrying out the arrests on Saturday night, Catalonia’s Mossos d’Esquadra police raided two abandoned factories in the seaside towns of Mataró and Canet de Mar where the eight detainees are thought to have been living.

The Mossos believe they were part of a "violent and organized" anarchist group, which has been dismantled following their arrests.

Riots unleashed by rapper’s arrest

The arrest of rapper Pablo Hasel on February 16 unleashed a wave of protests that have descended into violence throughout Catalonia—unrest not seen since the sentencing of the jailed pro-independence leaders in the fall of 2019.

More than a hundred people were arrested over the several nights of demonstrations, scores were injured, including a young woman who lost an eye to a foam bullet shot by police.

Hasel has been sentenced to serve 9 months in prison for glorifying terrorism and insulting the monarchy and other Spanish institutions in his tweets and songs.