Tortures on Via Laietana: for the first time in history, they will be investigated by the Prosecutor's Office

BarcelonaIf the judges are an insurmountable wall to investigate the crimes of Franco's regime and refuse to listen to the victims, the Prosecutor's Office will do so. For the first time, the Barcelona Prosecutor's Office, together with the Human Rights and Democratic Memory Unit of the State Attorney General's Office, has opened an investigation into the torture carried out by Franco's police in February 1977. This is the complaint filed, in November of last year, by the Via Laietana police station: February 1977, July 1980, December 1981, and March 1982. Blanca filed a complaint with the Barcelona Prosecutor for Human Rights and Democratic Memory, Sara Gómez Expósito. Until then, all the complaints had been submitted to a court.

For the time being, only the torture that occurred in February 1977 will be investigated, a few months before the first democratic elections and after Franco had already died. In a note, the Prosecutor's Office explains that in other cases it had already argued that, in application oflaw of democratic memory Under the Spanish law, passed in 2022, police torture was to be investigated. However, all judges have dismissed all complaints, often citing the amnesty law.

The inability to access information

"It's a historic precedent in the recognition and investigation of torture within the dictatorship. It's the first time in Spain that a prosecutor for democratic memory will hear from a victim of torture during the Franco regime and the Transition," highlights Brian Ventura, the Irídia lawyer handling Serra's case. The Spanish memory law explicitly states that victims have the right to justice, which must be guaranteed through public investigations that clarify human rights violations, but it only recognizes victims who existed until the Spanish Constitution came into force in 1978. "This torture," Ventura explains. "Until now, it has been impossible to access police reports and court documents; it will continue to be a judge who decides whether or not to open criminal proceedings, but they will have a wealth of information at their disposal."

While Serra was detained, she never had the right to a lawyer. "I told them I wanted a lawyer. The police officer shouted back that he was my lawyer and slapped me so hard I was thrown across the room." reminded me of the ARA when they filed the complaint. She lamented that the women suffered special harassment and that the humiliation and violence worsened over the years. "They no longer believed that we played a secondary role, and they systematically humiliated us. They made me strip naked and made comments about my body. I've always wondered what these torturers were like at home, how they treated their mother or sister. I don't think they treated them very well," Serra explained.