Proceedings are opened by the Delegate Prosecutor for Human Rights in A Coruña, based on the investigations and findings of the Galician Democratic Memory Plan in the Vilacova grave (Lousame).

 

The Delegate Prosecutor for Human Rights and Democratic Memory of the Provincial Prosecutor's Office of A Coruña, in coordination with the Human Rights and Democratic Memory Unit of the State Attorney General's Office, for the first time instructs pre-trial investigation proceedings, as a result of the work carried out by the Galician Democratic Memory Plan, from the year 2021.

 

According to articles 21.1, 22.1 and 24 of the ‘Ley 20/2022, de 19 de octubre, de Memoria Democrática’ (LMD), the HISTAGRA group informed the Public Prosecutor's Office of the appearance of human remains as a result of the search, location and exhumation of missing persons, carried out in the cemetery of Sta. Eulalia de Vilacova, in the municipality of Lousame. Consequently, by Decree of the Chief Prosecutor of the Provincial Prosecutor's Office of A Coruña, of 1 December, 2024, she entrusted the Prosecutor with jurisdiction to process the governmental files and the proceedings she deemed appropriate.

 

This is in line with the provisions of Chapter II, Title II of the LMD, which, in a novel way, establishes the creation of ‘a Prosecutor for the investigation of acts that constitute violations of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law, including those that took place during the coup d'état, the war and the dictatorship’.