The Constitutional Court, Spain’s most powerful legal institution, rejected the appeal of former communist leader Gerardo Iglesias to have his allegations of torture at the hands of General Francisco Franco’s regime treated as a crime against humanity.
Iglesias claims that on three occasions in the 1960s and early 1970s, he was tortured by Pascual Hanrado – who led Franco’s infamous Political Social Brigade secret police in the Asturias region. The court ruled that the statutes of limitations of the alleged crimes had passed and that the 1977 Amnesty Law immunised former fascists from crimes committed during the regime era of 1939-1978.