The lawyer Ana Messuti, lawyer of the so-called Argentine complaint, which promotes the investigation of crimes during the Francoismdied this Sunday in Madrid as a result of an illness.
As confirmed by the president of the Association for the Recovery of Historical MemoryEmilio Silva, the lawyer of this group in the Argentine lawsuit, has died due to the cancer he suffered and his body will be laid to rest at the funeral home in La Paz (Alcobendas).
Silva has highlighted the work carried out for decades by Messuti, who established himself “in the office of victims of Francoism that does not exist”, since “he opened his door to dozens and dozens of victims who had nowhere else to go” and He prepared “thousands and thousands of pages” to investigate alleged crimes of the Franco regime.
For the president of the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, she is a great lawyer and a great legal philosopher. “You did more than an entire State to compensate the victims of the Franco dictatorship, we will never forget you!”, the association published this Sunday on X (formerly Twitter).
Ana Messuti, our lawyer in the Argentine lawsuit against Francoism, has died. She was a great legal philosopher, very intelligent and immensely generous. He did more than an entire State to compensate the victims of the Franco dictatorship. We will never forget you! pic.twitter.com/Q2BWZgu6TZ
— Memoria_ARMH (@ARMH_Memoria) October 26, 2024
The so-called Argentine complaint was promoted in that country starting in 2010 by various groups and relatives of victims of the Spanish civil war and the Franco dictatorship to investigate alleged crimes against humanity.
Messuti was one of the lawyers who managed to get Argentine judge María Servini to prosecute former Spanish minister Rodolfo Martín Villa in 2021 for his responsibility in the deaths of several people between 1976 and 1978. Last September, Judge Servini rejected Martín Villa’s request to archive the casearguing that the acts of which he is accused may constitute crimes against humanity and are therefore imprescriptible.
Messuti also managed to deliver to the families the identified remains of 22 people who were murdered in Franco’s repression and who were exhumed in the Guadalajara cemetery, among them that of Timoteo Mendieta.
