Riots in Spain as people demand rapper Pablo Hase's release

Spain: Protests over the arrest of a rapper sentenced for insulting the Spanish government and praising terrorist force were marred by rioting for the third night in a row Thursday.

The plight of Pablo Hasél, who started the week to serve a 9-month sentence in a northeastern prison, has triggered an inflamed debate over the limits of free speech in Spain and a state storm over the use of violence by both the rapper's fans and the police.

The ruling coalition's more youthful spouse, the far-left United We Can (Unidas Podemos) party, on Thursday filed a petition that too for a "total pardon" for Hasél and another rapper, Valtònyc, who fled to Belgium in 2018 to avoid trial on sales of "glorifying" terrorism.

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But potentially deepening the tension, court authorities in the northeastern Catalonia region also stated that Hasél lost a recent appeal and is also looking at an additional prison sentence of 2 1/2 years for obstructing justice and assault in 2017. The sentence can also be appealed again in the country's Supreme Court.

Like the two previous nights, the protests began Thursday with large gatherings in several cities that were, at first, mostly peaceful.

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In Catalonia's regional capital, Barcelona, hundreds went on to sang songs, rapped and shouted "Pablo Hasél, freedom!" and "Spanish media, manipulators!" at a central square, and dozens broke off the main group to remove the barricade of trash containers and a construction skip that blocked the main city artery, hurling stones, bottles and other objects at riot police.