The Prosecutor's Office admits for the first time a crime of torture in an arrest by the Francoist police

BarcelonaThe Barcelona Prosecutor's Office has closed the torture investigation to the activist and philologist Blanca Serra, the first victim who went directly to the Prosecutor's Office for Historical Memory and not to the courtsThus, she is recognized as a victim of Francoism, and this is the first time she has been recognized under the 2022 Democratic Memory Law. Blanca Serra and her sister, the historian Eva Serra – who died in 2018 – were detained at the Via Laieta police station. The investigation concludes that during their arrest in February 1977, they suffered "torture perpetrated in a context of crimes against humanity." The Public Prosecutor's Office adds that the Political-Social Brigade arrested them solely for their political activity opposing the dictatorship and that they "inflicted physical and psychological violence on them to obtain information and a confession, which caused them traumatic aftereffects." All of this occurred within a context of persecution and political repression established by the Franco regime, the Public Prosecutor's Office adds in a statement.

However, the investigation has not been able to clarify the identity of the perpetrators of the crime. Therefore, the Public Prosecutor's Office has opted to file a complaint in court and has requested that, for the time being, the case be provisionally dismissed due to a lack of known perpetrators. In any case, the fact that the Public Prosecutor's Office is proposing a provisional dismissal leaves the door open to the possibility of reopening the investigation if new information comes to light in the future that helps to identify those responsible.

Furthermore, the Public Prosecutor's Office expressly states that the dismissal of the criminal investigation does not preclude the possibility of pursuing other legal actions provided for by law through civil proceedings.

First investigation opened

Before Blanca Serra filed her complaint directly with the Public Prosecutor's Office, all the complaints that victims of the Franco regime had brought to the courts had been dismissed because the justice system interpreted the statute of limitations as having expired and the 1977 amnesty law as preventing their investigation. Serra reported that both she and her sister had been tortured on four separate occasions. who were arrested during the Transition: in February 1977, 1980, 1981 and 1982As a result of this complaint, the Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation into the State for torture during the Franco regime for the first time, interpreting that the 2022 law on democratic memory obliges it to do so.