Punk singer held by Spanish police over lyrics at concert
Controversy comes amid succession of prison sentences for rappers
Punk singer Evaristo Páramos was temporarily held by Spanish Guardia Civil officers on Saturday after a concert in Andalucía. According to actor Guillermo Toledo, officers escorted him off after finishing the performance, pressed charges for the content of his lyrics, and let him go. Some Spanish newspapers, citing organizers, say officers held Páramo for a series of comments he made between songs, and put into question whether they ended up pressing charges or not.
In a Tweet latter on Sunday, Guardia Civil said Páramos was neither "detained" nor "held." Rather, police say they informed him of the charges they were pressing against him for insulting them after the concert.
With a musical career spanning over 30 years, Páramos was the former singer of La Polla Records, a very influential punk rock band from the Basque Country. On Friday, he was performing with Gatillazo, his current band.
Referring to the controversy, Basque pro-independence EH Bildu party said via Twitter “In Spain, freedom of speech does not exist.” They expressed their solidarity with Páramos, as well as “all artists who are under threat for criticizing the system with their songs, books, and other artistic expressions.”
En el Estado español no existe la libertad de expresión. Nos solidarizamos con Evaristo, que ha sido detenido y denunciado, y con todos los artistas que están bajo amenaza por criticar el sistema mediante sus canciones, libros y otras expresiones artísticas #LibertadDeExpresión pic.twitter.com/3khXf8KpmV
— EH Bildu (@ehbildu) May 27, 2018
Several Hip Hop artists in Spain have recently been sentenced to prison for their lyrics and public statements. The Mallorcan rapper Valtonyc, sentenced to 3 and a half years in jail, left the country last week and he is thought to be seeking refuge in Belgium. Spain’s National Court issued an international arrest warrant for him.
Last March, Amnesty International issued a report warning that Spanish judges were using a “draconian law” banning the glorification of terrorism to prosecute artists, in what was regarded as a “sustained attack on freedom of expression.”