The Court of First Instance and Instruction number 1 of Elda (Alicante) agreed to admit the complaint against members of the Armed Police and former Minister Rodolfo Martín Villa for offense against moral integrity by an authority or an official in connection with the death of the worker Teófilo del Valle on February 24, 1976.
In an order dated October 11, to which Europa Press had access, the judge authorized the opening of preliminary proceedings and the request for birth and death certificates of the defendants. The court gives three days to file an appeal in favor of the reform.
According to Acció Ciutadana contra la Impunitat del Francoisme (ACIF) – Complaint Support Platform Argentina País Valencià, the complaint was filed on April 22 by Teófilo’s brother, José Antonio del Valle Pérez.
The complaint is filed against the perpetrators and those responsible for the death in Elda of the young worker Teófilo del Valle following shots fired by armed police. The accused are police officer Daniel Aroca Del Rey, Sergeant Laureano Ballesteros Carbajo, Captain Carlos Holgado Marín, former civilian governor Benito Saez González De Elipe and former minister Rodolfo Martín Villa.
The events reported, recalls the group, “occurred in the context of the harsh police repressions suffered by workers in the Alicante shoe sector during the mobilizations of February 1976”. The assassination of Teófilo del Valle “was the first violent death committed by the forces of public order since the inauguration of the head of state of Juan Carlos I,” they emphasize.
The complaint was prepared by the legal services of the Acció contra la Impunitat del Francoisme association, member of Ceaqua, state coordinator of support for the Argentine complaint against the crimes of the Franco regime.
The ACIF highlights “the importance of initiating criminal proceedings that establish the judicial truth of the crime in which an armed police officer ended Teófilo’s life by shooting him six times in the back.”
“Achieving truth, justice and reparation for all people who suffered repression in the fight for freedoms and against dictatorship is essential to establishing historical truth, strengthening our democratic system and avoiding the repetition of these crimes,” they say in a press release.
