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Angry protesters took to the streets Tuesday night after police arrested Pablo Hasel, 32, who was hiding at a university in Catalonia to escape the nine-month prison sentence imposed on him in a controversial case of freedom of expression.
PHOTO GALLERY. There was a protest in Spain
Since then, protesters have taken to the streets every night and clashed with the police. The protests began in Hasel’s native Catalonia, but spread to Madrid and other cities. A huge force of officers was used to prevent violence during the weekend protests, and dozens of police vans lined the streets of Madrid and Barcelona.
Several thousand protesters in Barcelona began to gather around 7pm local time (8pm Lithuanian), but when they started their march towards the police headquarters, clashes broke out.
Protesters threw bottles, cans and firecrackers at police in response to the attack on the air with smoke coming from burning barricades, a correspondent for the AFP news agency reported.
Others broke and looted stores such as Nike, Versace, Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss and Diesel on Passeig de Gracia in Barcelona.
They also attacked a building of the Barcelona Stock Exchange and set fire to several motorcycles. In Madrid, some 400 people, supervised by a large police force, gathered in the center of the city, chanting and clapping, and curious shoppers stopped to see what happened.
“Free Pablo Hasel!” Protesters shouted as a helicopter flew overhead and at least 17 police vans lined up on Madrid’s busiest shopping street, Gran Vía.
Earlier, several hundred people gathered in the southern cities of Malaga, Cordoba and Seville, local media reported. Another 100 protesters gathered in the northern city of Santander and roughly the same number in Logroño. To date, more than 100 people have been arrested during the protests and dozens have been injured in the clashes.
Among them are many police officers and a young woman who lost her eye after being hit by one of the foam bullets fired by the police.
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