For his tireless efforts in the fight for memory, dignity, justice and reparation for all victims of the 1936 coup d’état, the civil war and the Franco dictatorship and for his sensitivity, his intelligence, his commitment and constant kindness.
On the night of Saturday October 26, enjoying the weekend, at home and enjoying Serrat’s fascinating speech on the occasion of the presentation of the Princess of Asturias Prize for the Arts 2024, I learned of the death of Ana Messuti. She was a lawyer, a specialist in the philosophy of criminal law, a United Nations official and a doctor of law in our field of criminal law from the University of Salamanca.
A fervent defender of universal justice, Ana Messuti was one of the lawyers who accompanied the victims of the Franco regime in the so-called “Argentine Complaint” against the crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity committed by the dictatorship by Franco, always showing a particular sensitivity. to the victims and their loved ones who suffered human rights atrocities over four long and drawn-out decades. Ana Messuti considers that the Spanish amnesty law of 1977 “transgressed the principles of international law and international covenants in this area”. He further stated that “considering the prescribed crimes as as serious as the systematically practiced torture reveals the desire not to judge them. »
Since settling in Madrid, she has frequently come to Salamanca – from the university from which she obtained her doctorate – to actively participate in any conference, seminar, meeting or congress on universal justice and crimes of war, genocide and crimes against humanity organized by the Criminal Law Space or by the Legal Clinic of Social Action, both of the University of Salamanca and meetings and tributes of historical memory organized by the association “Salamanca por la Memoria y la Justice”.
In another vein, Ana Messuti has devoted a good part of her research activity to her critical philosophical reflections on the custodial sentence, which she considers to be “exclusion from social space and time, because exclusion from social space is equivalent to deprivation of social time. The time that passes during deprivation of liberty, he says, “It is the time of a subject separated, not from his body, from which he cannot be separated, but from his person as social, from his power to be, as a possibility open to multiple possibilities. » According to Ana Mesutti, “From this point of view, in this sense, it is much closer to the death penalty than we usually think”. As a specialist in custodial punishment, we have had several in-depth debates on the subject, reaching the conclusion that the prison sentence as it is designed in practice and in most current penal systems, should be replaced by others of another nature. nature, due to their hostile, desocializing and stigmatizing content.
For its part, from the association “Salamanca por la Memoria y la Justicia”, the news of the death of Ana Messuti caused us immense sadness. For his tireless efforts in the fight for memory, dignity, justice and reparation for all victims of the 1936 coup d’état, the civil war and the Franco dictatorship and for his sensitivity, his intelligence, his commitment and constant kindness. Rest in peace, Ana, we will always remember you, dear friend and companion!
