PRECEDENTS

AN EXCEPTIONAL CASE FOR PROSECUTION

Criminal justice for crimes committed during the Civil War and under Francoism is already known not to have existed during the Spanish transition. No criminal prosecutions have been brought against those responsible for crimes attributable to the victors. Passive behaviour has prevailed among judges, prosecutors and political authorities who could order or call for prosecutions, as well as, to a certain degree, society at large. This is a crucial point, since the Spanish criminal procedural system recognises a broad space for individuals and organisations to call for criminal proceedings even if not direct or indirect victims of the crime concerned. Known as “class action” (acción popular), it stems from liberal tradition, conceived in the Spanish Constitution as the right of the citizens to participate in criminal proceedings. However, almost no efforts were made to avoid or mitigate the effects of the Amnesty Act. Until National Court Judge Baltasar Garzón decided to investigate the crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War and the dictatorship, there have been no initiatives to start a general criminal investigation.

Due to its exceptional character, the Ruano case is noteworthy. Its interest lies in it being a post-Amnesty Act attempt to prosecute, for a crime related to political repression by Francoist police forces. The case is also an excellent opportunity to provide an overview of the regime, which, even in the last phase, behaved ruthlessly against the opponents and was supported, in the form of passive complicity, by the Judiciary and wide sectors of Spanish society. Enrique Ruano was a twenty-year-old student member of the Communist Revolutionary Party, an illegal extreme left -wing organisation, who was arrested by the Brigada Politico-Social, the police in charge of investigation and prosecution of dissidents, on 17 January 1967. He died after three days in police custody. The police report stated that, during the search conducted at a home, “the handcuffs were removed to sign the minutes, he pushed an inspector against the wall and ran into the hallway and, jumping out of a window, fell into the inner courtyard of the building, having thwarted all the efforts by the officers to avoid that happening”.