This is the only case of A man tortured by Francoism who had the opportunity to declare and present his case before a judge in Spain, under the Democratic Memory Act, a case that came to nothing. The judge of the Court of Instruction number 50 of Madrid has terminated the criminal proceedings initiated by Julio Pacheco Yepes after having been tortured in August 1975as reported on Tuesday by NGOs that have been monitoring cases of Francoist torture.
The case began on May 12, 2023, when the president of that court, Ana María Iguácel Pérez, admitted to having processed the criminal complaint filed by Julio Pacheco in which he denounced the torture sufferedin a context of crimes against humanity, in August 1975. Pacheco was able to testify months later with a witness, Rosa María García Alcón. This complaint, emphasize the NGOs -CEAQUA, Amnesty International, Iridia and Sira-, marked an important step in the history of their fight against Franco’s torture, because it was the only one in which, after being admitted, the accused were indicted and a statement had been collected.
“6 years of struggle in the Spanish courts and more than 100 criminal complaints filed to denounce the crimes against humanity committed by the Franco dictatorship” which now receive the final blow with the request to archive the file for prescription, taking into account the content of Auto 57/2024 issued by the plenary session of the Constitutional Court.
In this order, they point out, the judicial proceedings before the Spanish courts regarding another complaint for crimes of torture during the Franco dictatorship, presented by Francisco Ventura Losada, were closed. The Constitutional Court, in the Order that gave rise to the Julio Pacheco case, considers that the current Law on Democratic Memory does not replace said Court in the interpretation of fundamental rights and that its articles are insufficient and do not allow it to investigate Franco’s crimes.
It is for them that NGOs consider that the Democratic Memory law approved in 2022 “remains insufficient” end impunity for the crimes of the Franco regime and denounces that “all complaints filed after the entry into force of said norm have been inadmissible or archived”. “Memorial and human rights entities will continue to fight to break the wall of impunity and to investigate and prosecute crimes against humanity committed under the Franco regime,” they state in their statement.
