The jailing in June of thirteen rappers for \u2018glorifying terrorism\u2019 in their lyrics has once again thrown the spotlight on Spain\u2019s use of draconian legislation to stifle free speech and dissent.<\/p>\n
But the sentences of up to nine months meted out to Pablo Hasel and twelve members of La Insurgencia<\/em> collective pale in comparison with the ordeal suffered by vegan activist Juan Manuel Bustamante, who spent sixteen months in jail on trumped-up terrorist crimes.<\/p>\n Known to friends and family as Nahuel, the softly spoken twenty-nine-year-old from Madrid was arrested in a dawn raid in November 2015. It was the beginning of a Kafkaesque nightmare that saw him pass through five of Spain\u2019s most notorious prisons, often locked up in solitary confinement and denied a vegan diet by his captors, who also beat him. It ruined his family\u2019s finances and led him to attempt to take his life after his release.<\/p>\n For the first time, Peru-born Nahuel has spoken to a foreign medium about his experiences and how they have scarred him. He speaks of the mental trauma, the beatings, the sense of loss but also of his profound gratitude to his mother for never giving up on him.<\/p>\n Nahuel had been a vegan since the age of thirteen. He and five of his friends, Francisco Mart\u00ednez, Borja Marquerie, Candela Betancort, David Budziszewski and Diego Hern\u00e1ndez, were part of a small vegan anarchist group called Straight Edge Madrid. They went to concerts, they handed out propaganda at flea markets, marched for animal rights<\/a><\/span> and posted slogans on social media.<\/p>\n