Protests continue for the arrest of Pablo Hasél 1:56
(CNN) -
Angry protesters have gathered in several Spanish cities for five consecutive nights, protesting the dramatic arrest of rapper Pablo Hasél earlier in the week.
Thousands of people gathered in Barcelona this Saturday, including families and elderly protesters, at the city's Plaça Universitat, where a peaceful demonstration began.
After moving to another square, called Plaça Urquinaona, police began beating protesters, Berta Galofré Pons, a 23-year-old political scientist, told CNN.
Images from the Barcelona protests on Saturday show multiple fights between protesters and police.
The Mossos d'Esquadra, the Catalan police, said in a tweet that they deflected the protests and that a group of protesters broke away from the main crowd, attacking the Barcelona stock exchange before vandalizing and looting shops.
This group burned motorcycles and erected barricades before firefighters reached the scene, officials said.
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The Mossos d'Esquadra arrested 34 people on Saturday, bringing the total arrests for the week closer to 100.
Police and protesters clash in Catalonia during protests over the arrest of rapper Pablo Hasél
Protesters clashed with a line of riot police in Barcelona during clashes on the fifth night of violent demonstrations condemning the arrest of rapper Pablo Hasél.
The arrest of rapper Pablo Hesel
Hasél was detained on Tuesday after Catalan riot police stormed the University of Lledia, near Barcelona, where the rapper and his followers had entrenched themselves.
A video of the arrest shows the defiant rapper yelling, “They'll never beat us!
They will never defeat us, we will resist until we are victorious.
Hasél had until February 12 to turn himself in to the police after, in May 2020, the Supreme Court of Spain confirmed the conviction of a court in March 2018 against the rapper, whose full name is Pablo Rivadulla Duro.
The conviction was for supporting terrorism, and also for defamation and slander against the Spanish monarchy, through his messages on social networks, according to a copy of the court ruling and a press release from the Supreme Court.
He was sentenced to nine months in jail.
The Spanish government announced last week that it would eliminate prison sentences for crimes related to freedom of expression, however, it is unclear when the changes will be made.
At least 55 injured in the second day of protests over the arrest of Pablo Hasél
Rapper Pablo Hasél was detained by police officers at the University of Lleida this Tuesday.
Hasél's Twitter account has been silent since he posted Tuesday that he would be imminently jailed.
"How can you jail someone for expressing your ideas?" Galofré said when asked why he attended the demonstrations on Saturday night.
"I do not agree with looting, and there are always people who will take advantage of social movements to cause chaos," said Galofré.
"The protests were peaceful until the police intervened."
In Sabadell, Galofré's hometown, a city north of Barcelona, the demonstrations were passive and uneventful, he added.
A much smaller demonstration took place in the Spanish capital, Madrid, where around 100 people sang for Hasél's freedom.
Five nights of protests in Spain
Joan Colet, a 16-year-old student, was protesting in Plaça de Catalunya on Saturday night and saw some people break away from the main group of the demonstration and start looting.
"A lot of people are taking advantage, they are not here to protest," he told CNN.
"They have different motives."
Police beat some protesters with batons and shot foam balls at others, Colet said, adding that the barricades the protesters set up were protective.
"We are tired of people going to jail for writing something on social media," he said.
"This is about Pablo's freedom, but also about Spanish freedom and freedom of expression."
After images taken during the previous nights showed protesters storming bank branches and others watching fires in the streets as police sirens sounded, Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez condemned the protests on Friday morning.
«In a full democracy, and Spanish democracy is a full democracy, the use of violence is unacceptable.
There is no exception to this rule, "he said at a press conference.
"There is no reason, place or situation that can justify the use of force."
However, the protesters ignored their warnings as the Mossos reported burning trash containers and street furniture on Friday, while the protesters broke the windows of several businesses in Barcelona.
Mossos reported similar scenes in Girona, a city in northeastern Catalonia.
Protesters set up barricades at iconic Barcelona locations such as Plaça de Catalunya and La Rambla, where they threw stones and other objects at police, Mossos said.
The violence followed patterns similar to those of the previous three nights of protest.
Reports of police violence
Police officers beat Catalan MP Dani Cornellà with batons in Girona on Friday after he tried to help someone who was being detained.
"Neither beatings nor state operations will stop the people's desire for freedom and social justice," he said in a tweet.
"Thanks for the support.
We remain committed to starting a new cycle.
When contacted by CNN, Mossos said that the person Cornellà was trying to help had a criminal record and that he pushed one of the officers by interfering with the arrest.
A woman was injured in the eye after a projectile struck her Tuesday, said photojournalist Àngel García, who captured the scene.
A woman after being struck in the eye by a shell on Tuesday.
"I was standing in front of the riot police line when they fired," he told CNN by phone on Saturday.
"I turned around and saw a woman with her hand over her eyes, covered in blood."
Garcia said the woman was hit by a police rubber bullet and lost her eye, which CNN could not independently verify.
In response to a request for comment from CNN, Mossos said his force only uses foam balls to maintain public order.
He is currently investigating the incident.
"The police have behaved brutally," said Oriol Estival, a 22-year-old geography student from the University of Barcelona who attended the protests.
"There was enormous police harassment and unjustified arrests of people who did nothing."
Estival said that people had looted luxury fashion brand stores, but said that most of the attendees were peaceful.
Like Galofré, he said he was not only protesting Hásel's arrest, but also police brutality and "the rise of the extreme right and fascism in Catalonia."
Student unions joined the protests on Friday, marching through the streets in the afternoon with a banner reading "Les universitats per la llibertat" or "Universities for freedom."
More than 100,000 people have signed an Amnesty International petition calling for the crime of insulting the crown to be removed from the penal code.
- CNN's Duarte Mendonca, Al Goodman and Sarah Dean contributed to this report.
Pablo Hasél Protests in Bar