A Judicial Scandal in Spain
Will the Directory Dare?

The trial that has just taken place before the High Court of War in Madrid characterizes a regime.

It is the trial of the "rioters" of Vera. We recall that, on November 7, a collision had taken place on the Franco-Spanish border, between civil guards and revolutionaries; a certain number of the latter were able to flee to French territory; others were arrested by the gendarmes of Navarre. A mystery has continued to hover over this affair, and it seems that a trap was set for the opponents of the dictatorship.
In any case, several of the rioters or pseudo-rioters were brought before a court martial in Pamplona, ​​on the charge of having killed civil guards. Despite the insistence of the military prosecutor, they were acquitted, no evidence having been brought against them.

Captain General Bargos brought up the case and refused to ratify the sentence. The accused of Pamplona were then transferred to the higher court. But it so happened that the attorney general refused to draw up the indictment, alleging that the trial did not "hold up". After the officers of Pamplona, ​​already threatened with disciplinary punishment for having acquitted, one of the highest magistrates recused himself. The scandal had to be great...

A prosecutor was nevertheless found, and he demanded the death penalty for three of the accused, prison for another.

It is obvious that the Directory is looking for victims, and that it wants to crack down on all justice. Since the judgment has not yet been rendered, perhaps it will hear the clamor of disapproval that will rise from everywhere. At the hour of its decline, it will understand, it should understand, that it would be in its interest to avoid this supreme shame.

PAUL LOUIS