Europa Press has announced that the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation, the Supreme Criminal Court of Argentina, has confirmed the revocation of the trial of former Spanish minister, Rodolfo Martín Villa. It considers the appeal of the State Aid Coordinator for the Querella of Argentina (CEAQUA), who accuses him of crimes against humanity for killing four people in Vitoria in 1976 and in Pamplona in 1978, to be ‘inadmissible’.

The ruling of the Second Chamber of the Federal Criminal and Correctional Chamber was revoked by the Argentine hearing in 2021 by Judge María Servini, which is now being ratified.

The decision is not taken unanimously. He voted in favour of two Chamber magistrates and against another Parliament magistrate.

In a view last week, Martin Villa’s defence argued that there is no ‘evidence’ to assert his participation in alleged crimes that the victims of Franco’s regime accuse him of. They said, as they stated in Publico.es, that in the words of Martín Villa’s lawyer ‘there were no crimes against humanity during the transition’, and the events of the sanfermines on 3 or 78 March were ‘isolated’, not systematic attacks on dissident citizens, as was claimed in Argentina to suspend the universal jurisdiction that underpins the investigation of the crimes of Franco.

The lawyer added that Villa was Minister of Trade Union Relations, not head of the Ministry of the Interior (Fraga was), so the former had no responsibility.

However, the reality is that the shared competences and the close collaboration between the two ministries in relation to the repression of the anti-Francoist movement. In addition, a commission of the Basque Government considered Martín Villa to be politically responsible for the 3 March 2008 massacre in Vitoria.

The lawyers of the Argentinian State Aid Coordinator, in direct contact with the association of 3 March, reaffirmed that the facts were political, criminal and crimes against humanity responsibility by Martín Villar.

Association 3 March and CEAQUA in disagreement

On March 3, Vitoria-Gasteiz and the State Coordinator of Support for Querella in Argentina have stated in a note that they do not agree with the resolution. Consideration is being given to appeals.

They recall that Martín Villa is still charged in Argentine lawsuit with twelve human murders aggravated in the context of crimes against humanity. The Tribunal must delve into the investigation in order to reorder the trial.