During the Franco dictatorship in Spain, thousands of people were condemned to death. In the period 1939-44, almost 3,000 people were executed after military show trials. All sorts of people - local mayors, activists and, infamously, Las Trece Rosas ("Thirteen Roses"), a group of young women who were executed on 5th August 1939.
The show trials continued throughout the Franco period, until in December 1970, the dictatorship organised a show trial against the 'Burgos 16', a group accused of supporting ETA and, specifically, of murdering a police commissioner, Meliton Manzanas.
As Michael von Tangen showed in "Prisons, Peace and Terrorism",
But it seems that the Spanish state has forgotten this lesson from history. Because it is increasingly apparent that the trials of the Catalan political prisoners will be exactly the same; show trials designed to show that the "insurgents were dangerous terrorists with no popular support."
Today we have news that leading Spanish judges have been using an internet discussion group to call pro-independence leaders 'Nazis', 'bacteria' and 'virus' and to accuse them of sedition. Judges, in other words, showing how biassed they are going to be in the forthcoming trials of the political prisoners.
President of the Generalitat Quim Torra has demanded the resignation of the chair of the General Council of the Judiciary, the body that governs the courts and judges in Spain.
President Torra is reported as having said that:
The political prisoners face trials, starting in November, on charges of violent revolution and sedition. If found guilty they will face sentences of up to 30 years.
For some of the prisoners, 30 years means that they could die in prison. Under the Franco regime they would have been shot, like the Thirteen Roses, after a similar show trial.
It's hard to spot the difference.
Source: Prisons, Peace and Terrorism: Penal Policy in the Reduction of Political Violence in Northern Ireland, Italy and the Spanish Basque Country, 1968-97, Michael von Tangen, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 1998
The show trials continued throughout the Franco period, until in December 1970, the dictatorship organised a show trial against the 'Burgos 16', a group accused of supporting ETA and, specifically, of murdering a police commissioner, Meliton Manzanas.
As Michael von Tangen showed in "Prisons, Peace and Terrorism",
...the intention of the trial had been to prove to the Spanish people and the international community that the insurgents were dangerous terrorists with no popular support. Instead, the trial became an international show-case in which the prisoners and their defence lawyers were able to denounce their treatment and the treatment that the Basque and Spanish populations suffered under Franco. This portrayal was disastrous for the regime, as Franco wanted to portray his state as ...increasingly liberal..and a suitable candidate to join the European Economic Community.
Show Trials, Opening Soon
But it seems that the Spanish state has forgotten this lesson from history. Because it is increasingly apparent that the trials of the Catalan political prisoners will be exactly the same; show trials designed to show that the "insurgents were dangerous terrorists with no popular support."
Today we have news that leading Spanish judges have been using an internet discussion group to call pro-independence leaders 'Nazis', 'bacteria' and 'virus' and to accuse them of sedition. Judges, in other words, showing how biassed they are going to be in the forthcoming trials of the political prisoners.
President of the Generalitat Quim Torra has demanded the resignation of the chair of the General Council of the Judiciary, the body that governs the courts and judges in Spain.
President Torra is reported as having said that:
the limited confidence that remains in Spanish justice has definitely been shattered today.
The political prisoners face trials, starting in November, on charges of violent revolution and sedition. If found guilty they will face sentences of up to 30 years.
For some of the prisoners, 30 years means that they could die in prison. Under the Franco regime they would have been shot, like the Thirteen Roses, after a similar show trial.
It's hard to spot the difference.
Source: Prisons, Peace and Terrorism: Penal Policy in the Reduction of Political Violence in Northern Ireland, Italy and the Spanish Basque Country, 1968-97, Michael von Tangen, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 1998
