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Spanish rapper Pablo Hasel, who was sentenced to jail in a controversial trial for lese majesty and verbal attacks against the police, has been arrested in the Catalan city of Lleida.

The television showed how the musician was taken away by the police on Tuesday.

He had previously barricaded himself with dozens of supporters in the University of Lleida. 

Hasel got into the police car with a raised fist and said: "Despite all the oppression, they will never make us bend."

The use to arrest Hasels began early in the morning at 6:30 a.m., a police spokesman for the AFP news agency said.

Supporters of the rapper had put up some barricades in the university building.

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Hasel is said to be serving a nine-month prison sentence after a verdict for glorifying terrorism as well as defamation and insult to the Spanish crown and state institutions.

The background is a series of Twitter posts in which he attacked the monarchy and the police.

He described police officers as “shitty mercenaries” and accused them of killing protesters and migrants.

The sentence had sparked protests in Spain

The authorities had given the rapper until last Friday to face the police.

Instead, Hasel barricaded himself in Lleida University since Monday.

He wrote on Twitter: “I am trapped in the University of Lleida with some supporters.

So you have to break in here if you want to arrest me and put me in prison. ”In a telephone conversation with AFP, Hasel had previously described Spain as a“ democracy forgery ”.

The sentence against Hazel had sparked protests in Spain.

A petition demanding the rapper's release has been signed by more than 200 artists, including well-known director Pedro Almodóvar and Hollywood star Javier Bardem. 

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Last week, the Spanish government announced a reform of the criminal law, under which "verbal excesses in the context of artistic, cultural or intellectual" actions will no longer fall under criminal law.

For many Spaniards, the Hasel case brings back memories of the rapper Valtonyc, who was convicted of similar allegations in 2018 and then fled to Belgium.

The extradition of Valtonyc requested by Spain is rejected by Brussels on the grounds that the allegations against him are not a criminal offense in Belgium.