The National Court rejects the appeal that sought to stop the exhumations in the Valley of the Fallen

It proves that the exhumation work is being done in a different place than where the appellant's grandmother is buried.

The Central Contentious-Administrative Court Number 11 of the National Court has rejected the appeal presented by the granddaughter of a woman buried in the Valley of the Fallen against the exhumation work carried out in this enclave by National Heritage.

The decision to inadmiss the appeal comes after the magistrate has proven that the exhumation work is being carried out in a different place than where the appellant's grandmother is buried and that, contrary to what she claims, this work They are not being carried out in fact since there were previous actions for these works.

In the order, collected by Europa Press, the magistrate explains that the documentation provided shows that there is a set of previous judicial, regulatory and administrative actions that constitute its support and that were known to the appellant and from which, he adds, he omitted inform the judicial body.

"In this case, a reading of the document presented by the appellant previously through administrative channels is enough to verify that, although it now qualifies the contested action as de facto, what was of interest then was the 'nullity and subsidiary annulability' of the exhumations" , Explain.

Remember that this letter gave rise to "an express response to your request through the communication of November 8, 2023 from the Manager of the National Heritage Administration Council."

For the AN, it follows from this that the granddaughter, when defending her case in court, did not act in good faith because the appellant "did not even consider in her first action before the Administration (...) that there was a de facto avenue."

For this reason, it declares the inadmissibility of this appeal that had been processed as a procedure for the protection of fundamental rights promoted in response to the exhumations that are being carried out in the Cuelgamuros Valley, "because such actions are not being carried out in fact."

It is worth remembering that last December the National Court lifted the precautionary suspension of the exhumations carried out by the National Heritage in the Cuelgamuros Valley after the State Attorney's Office presented allegations explaining that the grandmother of the person who requested to stop The work to protect the fundamental right to religious freedom was not buried in the chapel where the forensic experts are now operating.

THE ADVOCACY RESPONSE

In its allegations, the State Attorney's Office specifically indicated that the remains of the woman buried in the mausoleum, and whose granddaughter filed the appeal that managed to stop the work provisionally, are not found in the Sepulcher Chapel, which is where the investigations are being carried out. exhumations, but in the Capilla del Pilar and therefore "cannot be affected."

It thus stressed that the appellant lacked standing to appeal because "the interest invoked is merely hypothetical" and added that "the damages that the appellant invokes in an absolutely generic manner are non-existent since (...) the remains of the grandmother of the appellant are fully identified and located and are not the subject of the proceedings".

Christian Lawyers, who represented the granddaughter's legal representative, considered that the exhumation work authorized by the Ministry of the Presidency represented "a violation of the fundamental right to religious freedom."

He stated that "the mere need to have to perform DNA tests on the corpses (which implies a certain degree of desecration) is violating the exercise of religious freedom." He denounced that "to carry out these tests they have not requested consent from the relatives."

CHRISTIAN LAWYERS ANNOUNCES RESOURCE

As a result of this decision, Christian Lawyers has announced that, together with the Association for the Defense of the Valley of the Fallen, it will present a new contentious-administrative appeal. This time, they stated in a press release, representing "a man who has 9 relatives buried in the crypt where the exhumation work is being carried out." "This is the relative of 9 brothers who were murdered while attending mass," they added.

The president of Christian Lawyers, Poland Castellanos, has assured that "since the only argument put forward by the National Court is that the relative" of her client "is not in the crypt in which the exhumations are being carried out, when presenting the appeal on behalf of this other person" the court "will have no more excuses to definitively stop exhumations that are being carried out in a totally illegal manner."