
The rapper, known as Valtonyc, claimed the songs should be allowed under freedom of expression laws.
A rapper has been jailed for writing songs that prosecutors said glorified terrorism and insulted the
Spanish crown.
Josep Miquel Arenas, 24, from Mallorca, penned lyrics that called for political assassinations in the style of Basque separatist group ETA and said one regional politician 'deserved an atom bomb'.
The singer, known as Valtonyc, appealed against an earlier conviction on the grounds of freedom of expression and artistic freedoms.
He protested the controversial words were 'extreme, provocative, allegorical and symbolic'.But his three-and-a-half year prison sentence was upheld at the Supreme Court in Madrid on Tuesday.
The tribunal declared Valtonyc's songs contained messages that praised 'not only the political objectives of but the violent means employed by' ETA and clandestine Leninist group GRAPO.
Judges said reading the texts was enough 'to grasp the severity of the crime'.
One song contained the line 'We want the deaths of these pigs', while another threatened the armed occupation of a royal palace in the Mallorcan capital of Palma.
Street protests in Valtonyc's native Mallorca had called for his acquittal, but a second appeal is thought unlikely.
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Advocates of free speech warn that overzealous prosecutors and conservative judges are dialing back the clock in Spain, which began its experiment with democracy only after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
Disappointed at hearing the high court had upheld a prison sentence for Arenas, the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, tweeted that these are "sad and dark times when you have to fight for something so obvious as #rappingisnotacrime."
Civil libertarians here say Spain is repurposing laws meant to stop incitement to terrorism to cover what should be protected political speech - including lyrics by rap artists, who often assume tough-guy poses and playact as marginalized, angry characters in their songs.
"These punishments, without a doubt, have a self-censoring effect," said Yolanda Quintana, secretary general for the Platform for the Defense of Freedom of Information in Madrid.
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