The exhumations of the remains of the victims of the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship buried in the Valley of the Fallen continue their course when the Supreme Court rejects the appeal presented by the Association for Reconciliation and Historical Truth, the last jurisdictional obstacle that it stopped the extractions of the corpses.
This is stated in an order, advanced by Cadena Ser, in which the magistrates of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber inadmit the appeal filed against the judgment, of June 20, 2022, of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid in relation to the planning license for the rehabilitation of accesses to the crypts of the Basilica of Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos.
The appealed resolution agreed to lift the precautionary measure that prevented the extraction of mortal remains from the crypts, understanding that the scope of the intervention subject to the license would not entail “an irreversible urban transformation of the crypts.”
The High Court inadmits the appeal for non-compliance with the requirements for lack of sufficient grounds and without duly and precisely justifying the presumption incorporated into the precept to enforce it in the appeal venue.
The magistrates, as stated in a decision to which Europa Press had access, ordered the appellant to pay costs of 1,500 euros, in favor of the appealed party and person (State Attorney), who has opposed the admission of the appeal, and of 500 euros in favor of the other respondent and person (City Hall of San Lorenzo de El Escorial).
The court ruling agreed to deny the interested measure of suspension of the enforceability of the Agreement of June 24, 2021 of the Local Government Board of the San Lorenzo del Escorial City Council.
Said agreement granted Patrimonio Nacional a planning license for the rehabilitation of accesses to the crypts of the Basilica of Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos granted by the San Lorenzo del Escorial City Council.
In November 2021, Madrid’s Contentious-Administrative Judge number 20 agreed to provisionally suspend the building permit granted by the San Lorenzo de El Escorial City Council to National Heritage to exhume victims buried in the Valley of the Fallen.
The suspension occurred when considering that irreparable damage could be produced before the merits of the appeal filed by the Association for Reconciliation and Historical Truth is entered.
The Government, through National Heritage, requested in April 2021 from this City Council the request for an urban license to be able to begin the work of exhumation and identification of the victims who were buried in the crypts of the Basilica of Santa Cruz del Valle de the Fallen and who have been claimed by their relatives.
The Association for Reconciliation and Historical Truth requested the suspension alleging the “Fundamental right to privacy of the deceased and their families and the need to respect the sacred eternal rest that would be violated if they agree to carry out the manifestly illegal works requested” .
