Last use of capital punishment in Spain
The last use of capital punishment in Spain took place on 27 September 1975 when two members of the armed Basque nationalist and separatist group ETA political-military and three members of the Spanish anti-Francoist Marxist–Leninist group Revolutionary Antifascist Patriotic Front (FRAP) were executed by firing squads after having been convicted and sentenced to death by military tribunals for the murder of police officers and civil guards.
Spain was Western Europe's only dictatorship at the time and had been unpopular and internationally isolated in the post-war period due to its relations with Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s and the fact that its autocratic leader, Francisco Franco, had come to power by overthrowing a democratically elected government.
Numerous historians, including Helen Graham,[1] Paul Preston,[2] Antony Beevor,[3] Gabriel Jackson,[4] Hugh Thomas, and Ian Gibson[5] believe that the summary executions of political opponents by the Francoist side, which became known as the "White Terror", was a deliberate policy.
[11] In the 1950s, a thawing of relations occurred as Cold War tensions escalated and Franco's hostility to communism made him a reliable ally.
The first military tribunal took place on 28 August 1975 in Castrillo del Val when ETA members José Antonio Garmendia and Ángel Otaegui were sentenced to death for killing a civil guard, Gregorio Posadas, on 3 April 1974 in Azpeitia.
[18] Though witnesses failed to identify Garamendi and doctors testified that he was in no fit state to validate the confession, together with Otaegui, he was found guilty of the charges.
"[21] As a result of the trial, FRAP members VIadimiro Fernández, Manuel Blanco and José Humberto Baena received the death penalty for the killing of Lucio Rodríguez, an armed policeman, in Madrid on 14 July 1975.
[22] Though the prosecution had sought the death penalty for all five accused, Pablo Mayoral Ronda and Fernando Siera Marco received sentences of 30 and 25 years respectively.
[23] The third military tribunal, on 16 September 1975, also held in Hoyo de Manzanares, sentenced FRAP members Manuel Cañaveras, María Jesús Dasca, Concepción Trisián, José Luis Sánchez-Bravo and Ramón García Sanz to death, for their involvement in the killing of a civil guard, Antonio Pose, in Madrid on 16 August 1975.
[20] On 26 September, the Council of Ministers, headed by Franco, confirmed the death penalty for five of those sentenced: FRAP members José Humberto Baena, Ramón García Sanz and José Luis Sánchez Bravo and ETA members Ángel Otaegui and Juan Paredes, while commuting the death penalty in the case of the remaining six.
[27] A group of French intellectuals, including the actor Yves Montand, the film director Costa-Gavras and the journalist Régis Debray, attempted to organise a press conference in Madrid to read a prepared statement condemning the sentences, but were detained by police and expelled from Spain.
[18] The families had previously alleged that police had assaulted the mother of one of the condemned in Carabanchel Prison in Madrid during her final meeting with her son.
[31] A day of national demonstration was organised by the Dutch government[31] and a protest in Utrecht was led by Prime Minister Joop den Uyl.
La Vanguardia condemned the "vile and intolerable" crimes of the executed and argued that, while any death was regrettable, a "strong state at the service of a truly free society" was necessary against "fanatics who seek to disturb the peace.
[36] On 1 October, a demonstration in support of the government took place in Madrid, with Spanish state television claiming that more than a million people had taken part.
[39] Capital punishment was abolished for all civil crimes by the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with sanctioned military executions in war time the sole exceptions.
[22] In November 2012, a Basque Government commission found that the processes used to convict Txiki and Otaegui had violated their right to a fair trial and awarded €135,000 in compensation to their families.
[42] In November 2014, Spanish police refused an Argentinian request to Interpol, made under the terms of a 1987 treaty, to extradite 20 Francoists, among them those involved in the executions, for crimes against humanity.
[43] The 1991 Spanish film The Longest Night depicts the fictional meeting between the military prosecutor of the trial and one of the defense attorneys several years later.
