At an extraordinary session in Madrid yesterday, the High Court ruled by ten votes to five to suspend the search for Civil War and dictatorship victims ordered by Judge Baltasar Garzón (main photo) on the grounds that, under the 1977 Amnesty Law, Franco-era crimes cannot be investigated.

"The activities related to the exhumation of bodies must be suspended while this court resolves questions raised by the public prosecutor regarding the competence of the judge to make this move."

Judge Garzón's initiative has the backing of the UN Human Rights Commission, which recently urged Spain to scrap the Amnesty Law on the grounds that it contravenes international treaties.

The United Left IU party has threatened "legal action" against yesterday's ruling, which has been described as "unjust and inhumane" by various associations representing families of Civil War 'desaparecidos'.

Prosecutors challenge Garzón's competency to probe Civil War crimes
By: thinkSPAIN
Tuesday, October 21, 2008

High Court prosecutors are disputing Judge Baltasar Garzón's competency to investigate crimes committed during and after the Spanish Civil War.

In a statement released yesterday, prosecutors refute Judge Garzón's contention that such offences were crimes against humanity, and should therefore be investigated by the "courts in each territory where such atrocities were committed."

They also state that "the protection of the rights of the victims is guaranteed by the Law of Historical Memory, which," they argue, "is the ideal channel for the protection and tutelage of the victims' rights."

However, the appeal, which was presented to the Penal Court yesterday, does not demand the suspension of the exhumation of the 19 mass graves ordered by Judge Garzón at the end of last week, an initiative which, prosecutors stress, "they have never opposed."

Civil War crimes judge orders exhumation of 19 mass graves
By: thinkSPAIN
Friday, October 17, 2008

Having declared himself competent to investigate crimes against humanity committed during, and in the immediate aftermath of, the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), High Court judge, Baltasar Garzón, has ordered 19 mass graves to be exhumed, including one in Granada believed to contain the remains of poet and playwright, Federico García Lorca.

A 68-page ruling published yesterday estimates the total number of people that vanished between July 17th, 1936 and December 1951 at 114,266.

Given that Franco and all 34 of his senior aides named in the ruling as being responsible for instigating the crimes, are dead, they cannot face prosecution though Judge Garzón has requested to see their death certificates just to make sure.

However, a list of the names of the leaders of the fascist Falange party during the period under investiagtion has been requested from the Interior ministry, and any survivors could face trial.

Civil War/ Franco regime 'desaparecidos', totals by region:
Andalucía 32,289
Aragón 10,178
Asturias  1,246
Baleares 1,777
Basque Country 9,459
Canarias 262
Cantabria 850
Castilla La Mancha 7,067
Castilla León 12,979
Cataluña  2,400
Extremadura 10,266
Galicia 4,396
La Rioja 2,007
Madrid 2,995
Murcia 855
Navarra 3,431
Valencian Community 4,345
Ceuta and Melilla  464 
Other territories 7,000
Total 114,266

Mass grave locations by region:
Andalucía: Víznar (Granada), where Lorca is thought to be buried, Alfácar (Granada), La Palma del Condado (Huelva), Bonares (Huelva) and Niebla (Huelva)

Castilla la Mancha: Parrillas (Toledo)

Castilla León: Adrada de Haza (Burgos), Valdenoceda (Burgos), San Juan del Monte (Burgos), La Robla (León), Ponferrada (León), Balboa (León), Dehesas (León), Camponaraya (León), Magaz de Abajo (León), Tejedo del Sil (León) and Carucedo (León)

Madrid: Fuerte San Cristóbal and La Serna

Related news:

Slain poet's family agrees to exhumation
By: thinkSPAIN
Thursday, September 18, 2008

http://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/15503/slain-poets-family-agrees-to-exhumation

Battle of Ebro remains found in Tarragona hills
By: thinkSPAIN
Wednesday, September 3, 2008

A project to install wind-powered electricity generators in the Terra Alta borough of Tarragona province has unearthed human remains at the site of Battle of Ebro (1938), one of the bloodiest exchanges of the Spanish Civil War.

The skeletons are mostly intact and it is hoped that they can be identified using dental records or DNA analysis.

The discovery coincides with the start of an investigation into atrocities committed by Franco's fascist forces launched by High Court judge, Baltasar Garzón, earlier this week.

It is an attempt to compile the first ever record of those on the Republican side who were exiled, executed or forced into slave labour camps during and after the war.

The initiative has been criticised by the leader of the right-wing PP opposition party, Mariano Rajoy, who argues that nothing positive can be achieved by stirring up painful memories from the past.  

Judge probes fascist atrocities
By: thinkSPAIN
Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Judge Baltasar Garzón from the High Court in Madrid has requested information from the Spanish government, the Catholic Church, and all the mayors from Madrid, Córdoba, Sevilla and Granada provinces in order to compile a census of all those who 'disappeared' during the Spanish Civil War and Franco's subsequent forty-year dictatorship.

It is a first step towards compiling a reliable record of the exact numbers and the identities of all those slain or exiled by the victorious fascists, in order to determine if there are grounds for legal action against those responsible for the atrocities.

The mayors from the aforementioned provinces have been ordered to provide detailed lists of all those executed then buried in mass graves, and a similar request has been made concerning the Valle de los Caídos (second photo), the huge mausoleum built outside the capital to house Franco's remains and to honour those killed on the Nationalist side, where an unknown number of Republican slave labourers employed in its construction were also buried.