No change. The prosecutor of Spain's human rights and democratic remembrance chamber, and former justice minister, Dolores Delgado, has endorsed the report of the Barcelona prosecutors' office which requests the non-admittance of the complaint of Carles Vallejo, the first person to present a complaint for torture during the Franco regime in the notorious Spanish police station at Via Laietana, 43, since the entry into force of the new Spanish Law of Remembrance (LO 20/2022). The Barcelona prosecutors presented their report last June, alleging that crimes against humanity and torture did not exist when the events took place, between 1970 and 1971, and that these are time-barred, in addition to the legal barrier represented by Spain's Amnesty Act of 1977.
The organizations Amnesty International, CeAqua and Irídia asked Delgado in a letter to "take a position in relation to legals complaints over Franco-regime crimes" and especially with the new remembrance law, which, according to some lawyers, allows Francoist crimes to be the investigated, but in the end, the accused are protected by the 1977 amnesty. Consulted on Delgado's position, the Barcelona prosecutors' office informed ElNacional.cat this Tuesday that the prosecution service considers it "correct" to uphold the report which asserts that Vallejo's complaint should not be admitted. Now, the judge of Barcelona Court No 18, Carmen García, must make a final pronouncement on its admission or not.
The Catalan government's action
In an exceptional action, the Catalan justice minister, Gemma Ubasart, announced at the end of June that the Catalan government had pursued its own prosecution in the case of Carles Vallejo, who months ago filed the first complaint for torture at the Via Laietana Prefecture during the Franco regime, supported by the ONGs Irídia and Òmnium Cultural. Ubasart interpreted this action as "not aimed at punishing, but at obtaining legal truth", and Vallejo, who was by her side, expressed his thanks for the work done by the entities taking part in the remembrance law process, and that their action was in the name of "all those who had undergone retaliation".
More than 100 complaints
The bodies taking part focused on a loophole opened by the new remembrance law to present new complaints over crimes committed under the Franco regime, such as that of Blanca Serra, who was also tortured in the Via Laietana police station. Delgado's position, however, will make it difficult for the judges to change their minds, and they will certainly continue not to admit complaints, especially against police torturers. In July it was announced to great fanfare that the anti-Franco militant Julio Pacheco was going to testify in a court in Madrid, since for the first time in Spain, a complaint against Francoist crimes had been admitted. On the same day, July 14th, however, the judge suspended the move in order to better analyze the complaint. The assessments are that more than 100 complaints have been lodged against Francoist crimes in the last six years. So far, the dissidents have not obtained any justice or reparations, and some of them worked in the promotion of the 2010 Argentinian complaint against the crimes of the Franco regime, when judge Maria Romilda Servini from the South American country started an investigation for crimes against humanity after interpreting that such crimes are not subject to a statute of limitations. However, the Spanish state has torpedoed all progress on this, by insisting that they had already been time-barred as well as the fact that the perpetrators were protected by the 1977 Amnesty law.
In addition to the text of the new Spanish law of remembrance, which advocates to follow the opinions of international institutions, Irídia also quotes the United Nations Committee against Torture, in its latest report, which "regrets the persistence of legislative obstacles to the investigation of serious violations of human rights" during the Franco regime, and urges the Spanish government to repeal the Amnesty Law of 1977.