Like Pablo Hasél, I faced jail for my rap lyrics – but the worst censorship is self-censorship | Valtònyc

The rapper's arrest shows Spain has a problem with freedom of ideology. But people shouldn't be scared to write songs that stand up to power

The arrest of Pablo Hasel this month, a Spanish rapper - like me - who is accused of glorifying terrorism and insulting the monarchy in his lyrics, didn't surprise me. When I was 18, I wrote a song about the Spanish king, the police arrested me and I was sentenced to three and a half years in jail. The day they came to take me to prison, I fled to Belgium and have been here ever since, despite the best efforts of Spain to have me extradited. It seemed like a joke - almost four years in jail for a song. But it wasn't: there are 18 rappers in Spain facing jail for similar charges.

Related: Angry words: rapper's jailing exposes Spain's free speech faultlines