An Argentine judge heard testimony in Spain on Thursday from two women in their 90s who say their family members were tortured and killed during General Francisco Franco's right-wing dictatorship.
Teresa Alvarez, 93, said she told the judge how her father was jailed and tortured by Franco's henchmen who rammed the end of an umbrella in his ears, causing him to lose his hearing.
She said one of her brothers went missing while another was sentenced to forced labour.
"I told everything in detail. I have lost my memory but I have this engraved in my mind," Alvarez told reporters after she testified at a Madrid courthouse.
"Telling everything that happened to me made me very happy," she added.
Faustina Romeral, 93, testified that she and her mother were jailed by Franco's forces for years while her grandfather was shot to death by a firing squad. Her father and brother went missing.
Their testimony forms part of a probe into possible crimes against humanity by the Franco dictatorship which Argentine Judge Maria Servini de Cubria opened in 2010 under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
This doctrine allows certain human rights abuses to be pursued and tried elsewhere if the country in which they occurred did not investigate.
Franco ruled Spain from the end of the country's 1936-39 civil war until his death in 1975 and brutally repressed political opponents during this period.
He took power after leading a rebellion against a democratically elected government, which sparked the civil war.
- 'Huge advance' -
The Argentine probe started after a much publicised investigation into Franco-era crimes launched by famed former Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon hit a standstill.
Garzon's Franco crimes probe faced stiff opposition in Spain because it was seen as going against a 1977 amnesty that was adopted to unify the country after Franco's death in 1975.
It was seen as a necessity by the leaders tasked with unifying the country still smarting from the wounds of the 1936-1939 civil war and the ensuing decades of dictatorship.
But it has never satisfied the victims and their families, nor those who believe that international laws against the worst human rights violations should trump the national amnesty.
Spanish High Court Judge Fernando Andreu and Argentine prosecutor Ramiro Gonzalez accompanied Servini de Cubria as she listened to the testimony from the two women on Thursday.
"What has happened is a huge advance. A Spanish judge was present and fully cooperating with a request for judicial aid from Argentina," one of the lawyers who represents Franco's victims, Carlos Slepoy, told reporters outside the Madrid courthouse where the women testified.
"This is a sign that something is changing, that we are getting nearer to the end of impunity," he added.
The Argentine judge has been in Spain since May 19 to hear testimony from Franco's victims who are too frail to travel to Argentina.
She heard testimony from five other victims in the northern Basque region and in the southern region of Andalucia, including Felix Padin, a 97-year-old former union activist who spent time at a concentration camp set in the 1940s that had been set up by the Franco regime.
The judge's trip to Spain wraps up on Saturday. She has already heard the testimony of dozens of other victims of the Franco regime in Argentina, most recently in December.
Last year she asked that Argentine consulates around the world open their doors to collect complaints from victims of the dictatorship.
The Argentine judge in November requested the extradition of two former Spanish policemen to stand trial for allegedly torturing prisoners during the Franco dictatorship.
Spain's top criminal court in April refused the extradition request on the grounds that the charges against the officers related to events that occurred too long ago.
A United Nations working group in September urged Spain to investigate the suspected forced disappearances of 100,000 people during the civil war and ensuing Franco dictatorship.
An Argentine judge heard testimony in Spain on Thursday from two women in their 90s who say their family members were tortured and killed during General Francisco Franco’s right-wing dictatorship.
Teresa Alvarez, 93, said she told the judge how her father was jailed and tortured by Franco’s henchmen who rammed the end of an umbrella in his ears, causing him to lose his hearing.
She said one of her brothers went missing while another was sentenced to forced labour.
“I told everything in detail. I have lost my memory but I have this engraved in my mind,” Alvarez told reporters after she testified at a Madrid courthouse.
“Telling everything that happened to me made me very happy,” she added.
Faustina Romeral, 93, testified that she and her mother were jailed by Franco’s forces for years while her grandfather was shot to death by a firing squad. Her father and brother went missing.
Their testimony forms part of a probe into possible crimes against humanity by the Franco dictatorship which Argentine Judge Maria Servini de Cubria opened in 2010 under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
This doctrine allows certain human rights abuses to be pursued and tried elsewhere if the country in which they occurred did not investigate.
Franco ruled Spain from the end of the country’s 1936-39 civil war until his death in 1975 and brutally repressed political opponents during this period.
He took power after leading a rebellion against a democratically elected government, which sparked the civil war.
– ‘Huge advance’ –
The Argentine probe started after a much publicised investigation into Franco-era crimes launched by famed former Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon hit a standstill.
Garzon’s Franco crimes probe faced stiff opposition in Spain because it was seen as going against a 1977 amnesty that was adopted to unify the country after Franco’s death in 1975.
It was seen as a necessity by the leaders tasked with unifying the country still smarting from the wounds of the 1936-1939 civil war and the ensuing decades of dictatorship.
But it has never satisfied the victims and their families, nor those who believe that international laws against the worst human rights violations should trump the national amnesty.
Spanish High Court Judge Fernando Andreu and Argentine prosecutor Ramiro Gonzalez accompanied Servini de Cubria as she listened to the testimony from the two women on Thursday.
“What has happened is a huge advance. A Spanish judge was present and fully cooperating with a request for judicial aid from Argentina,” one of the lawyers who represents Franco’s victims, Carlos Slepoy, told reporters outside the Madrid courthouse where the women testified.
“This is a sign that something is changing, that we are getting nearer to the end of impunity,” he added.
The Argentine judge has been in Spain since May 19 to hear testimony from Franco’s victims who are too frail to travel to Argentina.
She heard testimony from five other victims in the northern Basque region and in the southern region of Andalucia, including Felix Padin, a 97-year-old former union activist who spent time at a concentration camp set in the 1940s that had been set up by the Franco regime.
The judge’s trip to Spain wraps up on Saturday. She has already heard the testimony of dozens of other victims of the Franco regime in Argentina, most recently in December.
Last year she asked that Argentine consulates around the world open their doors to collect complaints from victims of the dictatorship.
The Argentine judge in November requested the extradition of two former Spanish policemen to stand trial for allegedly torturing prisoners during the Franco dictatorship.
Spain’s top criminal court in April refused the extradition request on the grounds that the charges against the officers related to events that occurred too long ago.
A United Nations working group in September urged Spain to investigate the suspected forced disappearances of 100,000 people during the civil war and ensuing Franco dictatorship.
