Rapper Valtònyc will avoid jail despite conviction after telling crowd to kill police
Mallorcan artist, who returned from five-year exile in October, accepted court's version of events and apologized
The Mallorcan rapper Valtònyc, Josep Miquel Arenas, was given a two-year prison sentence by a court in Seville on Tuesday, in relation to comments made in March 2018 at one of his concerts, urging the crowd to kill a police officer.
The artist, who performs in Catalan, will not go to jail, as prison sentences in Spain of up to two years are generally suspended.
At the beginning of the trial on Tuesday, Valtònyc acknowledged the events and apologized, accepting the court's version of the events after the prosecution and the public prosecutor offered him a sentence reduction.
According to the defendant, the words were taken out of context and were never supposed to offend anyone.
"Kill a f*** Spanish Guàrdia Civil officer tonight. Go to another municipality where there are Guàrdia Civil officers and kill one! Do not ask yourself what you can do for me. Ask what you can do for yourselves. Place a f*** bomb in the prosecution's office once and for all," he said during the concert.
The prosecution asked for four years in prison.
A month before the gig, a court sentenced Valtònyc for glorifying terrorism, humiliating victims, insulting and slandering the crown, and threats against a group of people, which could have seen his imprisonment but saw him leaving Spain to go to Belgium.
Once the lapse of the crime passed, Valtònyc returned to Spain in October.
During the concert, the rapper also said that Spain's National Court was a fascist court, coming from the Francoist Public Order Court, according to the prosecution, Valtònyc's speech was because of his discontent after the ruling.
Recorded and shared
Valtònyc's speech was recorded and shared online, where a lot of media outlets got the video and published it on their outlets.
Arenas has complained about the judicial procedure of a performance, which even ended with the prosecution asking for prison time. He now believes the ruling has been softened "at least personally," and hopes that he can continue with his life, Josep Miquel Arenas said to the Catalan digital outlet VilaWeb.
His current goal is to continue to "do music and activism," and the "only way to do it was to avoid going to prison."
"I could not spend five more years in exile, and I did not want to go to prison," he added.
Valtònyc added it was the prosecution who offered the deal.