This morning, the Government delivered a declaration of recognition and reparation to the family of the Catalan anarchist Salvador Puig Antich, executed by garrote on March 2, 1974 after being sentenced to death during a trial marred by irregularities. The four sisters of the young man, barely 25 years old, received with enthusiasm from the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, a document in which Puig Antich is recognized as a victim of Francoism and is recorded . that the court which convicted him is illegitimate and that his conviction was void.
“We have been fighting for this for 50 years, for the dignity of our brother Salvador. For us it is very important,” said Immaculada Puig Antich, who added: “We are very excited, we have no words.” Merçona, Carme and Montse Puig Antich, as well as others close to the young man, applauded with emotion.
The declaration of recognition and reparation is a figure contained in the law on democratic memory approved in 2022 to which victims of the civil war and dictatorship are entitled. He admits that they were and, in a way, it is made official that the convictions imposed on them are not valid because the law itself annuls them all “for formal and substantive defects” .
Thus, during the event, the statement received by the family of Puig Antich, one of the last two assassinated by Franco’s vile garrote, was read aloud. The text recognizes that this recognition is granted “for the persecutions and violence suffered for political, ideological and conscience reasons during the dictatorship and in recognition of his status as a victim for having been sentenced to the death penalty in case 106 /73. the War Council held on January 8, 1974 in Barcelona and executed by the Franco regime on March 2, 1974.” Furthermore, he adds that the law on democratic memory declares “the illegitimacy of the courts” and the “nullity of their sentences” for being “contrary to the law and violating the most basic requirements of a fair trial”.
Puig Antich, murdered in the Barcelona Model, was a prominent member of the Iberian Liberation Movement (MIL), an anarchist group that committed bank robberies to finance its actions. The activist was arrested on September 25, 1973 after participating in a robbery in an entity of Bellver de Cerdanya, in Girona. During the arrest, a police officer was killed by several pistol shots, of which Puig Antich was accused in a trial that, according to lawyers and relatives of the executed man, was full of irregularities that still call into question , to date, the conclusions reached those reached by the military tribunal which pronounced his death sentence.
The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory thanked the family for their presence in an act that he defined as “reparation, justice, non-repetition and truth” and insisted that “democracy does not is not complete if it is not repaired and given.” public repercussion due”: “The War Council pronounced an unjust sentence which is therefore annulled. These processes were outside the legal framework and the minimum defense of the accused,” Torres added.
“Salvador was a victim, just like his loved ones, who lost him very young. I know it’s a bittersweet day because they’ve been waiting 50 years for this, too long, but it’s a gesture I know they will appreciate because it means putting things where they belong. Wherever he is, he will also know that today, in a certain way, justice is done,” he closed to applause.
