A Spanish court has issued an international arrest warrant for a rapper who is thought to have fled the country to avoid jail for songs that threatened a politician, glorified terrorism and insulted the crown.

Josep Miquel Arenas, better known as Valtònyc, was due to begin his three-and-a-half-year jail term on Thursday after his sentence was upheld by Spain’s highest court in February.

But on Wednesday afternoon, the Mallorcan rapper wrote a tweet suggesting he had decided to disobey the judges.

“Tomorrow they will knock down the door of my house to put me in jail,” he wrote. “For some songs. Tomorrow Spain is going to make a fool of itself, once more. I’m not going to make it easy for them. Disobedience is legitimate and it’s an obligation when it comes to this fascist state. No one’s giving up here.”

Josep V. ️ (@valtonyc)

Mañana es el día. Mañana van a tumbar la puerta de mi casa para meterme en la carcel. Por unas canciones. Mañana España va a hacer el ridículo, una vez más. No se lo voy a poner tan fácil, desobedecer es legítimo y obligación ante este estado fascista. Aquí no se rinde nadie.

May 23, 2018

Several local media outlets in the Balearic Islands and neighbouring Catalonia subsequently reported that he had fled Spain.

On Thursday afternoon Spain’s highest criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, issued a national and international arrest warrant against Valtònyc.

“This is the normal system when someone who’s due to serve a sentence flees justice,” said Spain’s justice minister, Rafael Catalá.

Concerns have been mounting over the past few months as several Twitter users and rappers have been taken to court – and some of them jailed – for allegedly glorifying terrorism or insulting the king in their comments or lyrics.

The lyrics for which Valtònyc, 24, was convicted include “let them be as frightened as a police officer in the Basque country” and “the king has a rendezvous at the village square, with a noose around his neck”.

The mention of the Basque country was a reference to violence by Eta, whose terror attacks across Spain left hundreds of officials and civilians dead.

The rapper also inveighed against Jorge Campos, the former president of the Balearic Circle, a foundation that fought against the imposition of the Catalan language in the Balearic Islands.

Lyrics include “Jorge Campos deserves a nuclear destruction bomb” and “I will pull out his artery and everything else necessary”.

In March, Amnesty International said a Spanish law banning “glorification of terrorism” had created a “chilling” environment in which people were increasingly afraid to express alternative views or make controversial jokes.

But some legal experts have argued free speech has its limits. It does “not [give] permission to say whatever one wants,” Antonio Torres del Moral, a constitutional law specialist, told Agence France-Presse.

Sam Jones

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