A court of the National Court has urgently stopped the exhumations of victims from the Cuelgamuros valley. In an order, the magistrate upholds the request for extremely precautionary measures from the granddaughter of a woman buried in the basilica and paralyzes the work to “take a deeper understanding of the situation.” The order gives National Heritage three days to make allegations and announces that it will make a decision later.
The decision of this contentious-administrative court comes after another judge of the National Court studied, with the rejection of the Prosecutor’s Office, a similar request. Recently, in addition, an ordinary court in Madrid annulled the construction license granted by the San Lorenzo de El Escorial City Council to carry out the work necessary for the exhumations.
This lawsuit arose from the request for urgent measures by a woman, represented by Christian Lawyers, whose grandmother is buried in the valley’s basilica. This ultra-legal organization assures that the work involves “a certain degree of desecration” and that to carry out DNA tests on the mortal remains in the crypts “they have not requested consent from the relatives.” On paper, they understand that their right to religious freedom is being violated.
Regarding these very precautionary measures, implemented by the court before consulting the affected parties, the order understands that the exhumations and previous work are being carried out in fact: “It is not appreciated, with the information in the records, that the situation reported as a factual action does not occur,” states the judicial document. Give National Heritage three days to “become more deeply aware of the situation” and then decide whether to lift or maintain the measures.
Years waiting for exhumations
The exhumations of victims of the Franco regime in the Cuelgamuros valley have been stuck in the courts for years, since in 2016 a Madrid court opened the door to extracting the remains of the Lapeña brothers. Since then, a lawsuit initiated by the Franco Foundation and other far-right associations led to the precautionary suspension for months of the urban planning license necessary to carry out the work.
That precautionary stay was lifted but the ruling on the merits of the matter, recently handed down by a Madrid court, annulled the license. This ruling, appealed by the State Attorney’s Office before the Superior Court of Justice of the capital, understood that this type of work went far beyond what a municipal government could authorize through a construction license.
Other appeals were presented before the central contentious courts of the National Court. At the moment this is the first very precautionary decision and, to date, the Prosecutor’s Office has opposed this type of action being able to urgently paralyze the work carried out in Cuelgamuros.
Source: www.eldiario.es
