Judge María Servini de Cubría has rejected the request of former minister Rodolfo Martín Villa to archive the complaint investigating the crimes of the Franco regime in Argentina, the only one currently open in the world. Martín Villa, whose prosecution was canceled two years ago but remains accused of 12 crimes, had requested last July a document requesting the closure of the process, but the Federal Criminal and Correctional Court 1 of the Argentine Republic rejected the request, as reported by the State Coordinator of Support for the Argentine Complaint (CEAQUA).
Martín Villa argued in his brief that the facts investigated were prescribed and he requested, in any case, that they be dismissed from their duties, that is, he asked to be dismissed from his duties and exonerated, since he considered himself innocent of the crimes and had not been tried within what his defense considered “a reasonable time.”
According to the court’s resolution, which elDiario.es has had access to, the country’s public prosecutor’s office opposed such a claim, as has the judge herself. Servini claims that the facts investigated “have been classified as crimes against humanity” and, therefore, “are imprescriptible.” Thus, in addition, universal jurisdiction “constitutes a tool” that allows these facts to be investigated from Argentina, even if they occurred in Spain, the judge adds.
“There are many international treaties and standards which, based on principles from customary international law, indicate that crimes against humanity are not subject to any statute of limitations,” he explains.
The brief also excludes that the investigation “violated Martín Villa’s right to defense” or violated his right “to be heard within a reasonable time or judged without undue delay,” as his defense claims. The length of the process, Servini believes, is explained by the “great complexity” of the case, which “easily justifies its duration”: it is an investigation “with a large number of victims and relatives and a constant and continuous incorporation of new complaints.” Servini details.
Martín Villa, UCD minister after Franco’s death, was prosecuted in 2021 by María Servini for four homicides that she considered to have occurred in a context of crimes against humanity, in 1976 and 1978. The judge considered that there was sufficient basis to send him to trial, but after an appeal by his defense, the decision was revoked two months later and confirmed in 2022 by the Federal Court of Criminal Cassation of Argentina, which canceled his prosecution after appeals by the promoters of the complaint.
The case has thus returned to square one, which means that the former minister continues to be the subject of a judicial investigation for 12 homicides that occurred during the Vitoria massacre on March 3, 1976, several cases dating back to 1977 in cities such as Madrid, Pamplona or Bilbao, and another murdered during the Sanfermines events in Pamplona in July 1978. In all three moments, Martín Villa was Minister of Trade Union Relations and the Interior, Minister of the Interior and Minister of the Interior, respectively.
