Spanish rapper sentenced for ‘threats’ against police

BARCELONA (AFP): A Spanish rapper who fled to Belgium after being sentenced for glorifying terrorism in his lyrics, was sentenced on Tuesday to two years in prison for making “threats” against police at a concert.

Prosecutors had asked for Jose Miguel Arenas Beltran — better known as Valtonyc — to be given a four-year jail term after he urged the crowd at a concert in the southern town of Marinaleda in March 2018 to “kill” a police officer “tonight”.

Video images of his comments were picked up by Spanish media after they were published on social media, sparking outrage.

But the rapper reached a plea deal with prosecutors and the AUGC police union which filed the complaint against the 29-year-old singer to obtain a lower sentence in exchange pleading guilty.

Prosecutors and the union did not oppose the singer’s request for his sentence to be suspended but the presiding judge still has to approve the measure, said a spokesman for the court in the southern city of Seville which handled the case.

Beltran fled to Belgium in 2018 after a Spanish court handed him a three-and-a-half-year jail term on charges of glorifying terror, insulting the king and making threats in his lyrics.

That sentence was over lyrics in songs published online in 2012 and 2013, at a time when he was a little-known rapper in the Balearic Islands.

The case sparked criticism from international organisations, such as Amnesty International, which argued his right to free speech was being violated, and Spain’s efforts to have him extradited ran into obstacles in Belgium’s courts.

He was able to move back to Spain last month because his sentence had expired due to the statute of limitations.

“Freedom is a strange journey,” the singer wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday when his plea deal was made public.