Likewise, it is the first time that a prosecutor from the Human Rights and Democratic Memory Unit of the Spanish Government, directed by Dolores Delgado, participates. Julio Pacheco has stated that he suffered physical punishment by police from the Political-Social Brigade in 1975.
“To reach this point is to begin to break the wall of silence and impunity that we have with the Franco regime.” This is what Julio Pacheco, the first complainant of torture during the Franco regime who has testified before the Justice in Spain, spoke out today.
The head of the Investigative Court number 50 of Madrid, Ana María Iguácel, took statements this Friday from the complainant and a witness of the events reported, which consist of torture suffered in the General Directorate of Security in August 1975. This is the first statement before a Spanish court by a victim for this type of events, after more than one hundred lawsuits filed, and also the first time that a prosecutor from Memoria Democrástica attends a procedure, tax sources have confirmed.
This year, the Government of Spain launched the Office of the Prosecutor for Human Rights and Democratic Memory, provided for in the law of the same name, and whose head since June has been the former minister and former attorney general of the State Dolores Delgado.
Several dozen people have gathered at the door of the courts, summoned by the organizations Ceaqua, Amnesty International and Iridia, who have shown their support for Pacheco, applauding him as he enters and leaves the courthouse. Those gathered have displayed two large banners with the legends “Let’s break the wall of impunity” or “The victims of Franco’s regime demand Justice. Application of human rights now.”
Upon leaving, after an hour of testimony, Pacheco seemed happy and stated that getting this far “is already beginning to break the wall of silence and impunity that we have with the Franco regime, and the first time that a judge pays attention to you and hey”, so that “there can be more, and that this can begin to open in some way and that we can finally obtain justice here in the Spanish State”.
At the time of his arrest, Julio Pacheco was a university student and member of the Communist Party, accused of participating in the murder of Civil Guard lieutenant Antonio Pose Rodríguez. According to his complaint, he was subjected to torture by agents of the Political-Social Brigade, including former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, during three days of kidnapping so that he could incriminate himself.
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