Spanish "justice" in 1975

The Observer, 28 September 1975.

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Spanish justice 

THE SPANISH executions are an act of totalitarian barbarism, despite the concessions which have been made in response to the world's protests. The decisions that only five of the eleven condemned people should die, and that execution would be by firing squad, rather than garrotte, ought to encourage foreigners to agitate against the other cases which are pending. The medieval attitudes of General Franco's regime are also illustrated by the tortures inflicted on terrorist suspects in Spanish jails (hundreds have been rounded up in recent weeks) and by the cynical manner in which those accused of violence against the police are tried and sentenced. 

    The Franco regime has recently adopted extreme measures, Under the anti-terrorist law passed in Spain last month, the trial 'by almost summary' court-martial is completed within a single day. The military prosecutor simply reads out the charges without any obligation to produce witnesses or evidence. Civilian counsel who displease the court by conducting a vigorous defense may be dismissed and replaced by military officers, who have only a few hours to familiarize themselves with the case. 

    A guilty verdict carries a mandatory death penalty. There can be no appeal. Once the sentence is confirmed by the Captain-General of the military region, it must be carried out 12 hours after it has been formally communicated to the Cabinet, unless the senile dicțator of Spain chooses to intervene. 

    One does not have to condone the murder of anonymous policemen by extreme Left and Basque activists to find the fresh denial of elementary human rights both morally despicable and politically stupid, even by the standards of General Franco's ugly and moribund regime.