Julio Pacheco Yepes, 68, was questioned by a judge in September 2023 — the first time someone who says they were detained and tortured during the Franco era testified at a Spanish court.

He was 19 when he was arrested in Madrid in August 1975 for belonging to a left-wing underground movement that opposed the regime.

His detention happened just three months before the death of Franco, who ruled with an iron fist since the end of Spain’s 1936-39 civil war.

The former printer said he was tortured for several days at the Madrid police headquarters before being jailed for “terrorism”.

Pacheco Yepes filed a lawsuit against his four alleged torturers in February 2023. A Madrid court in May admitted it, saying there was possible evidence of “crimes against humanity and torture”.

But it closed the case on July 31 on the ground that the time limit for filing criminal charges had passed and because the alleged crimes fell under an amnesty law passed in 1977 during the transition to democracy.

“It’s devastating,” Pacheco Yepes told AFP, adding he felt “anger”.

“‘There has been a lot of movement, we have gone to testify. So there was a certain expectation that we could get somewhere,” he added.

Pacheco Yepes said he had appealed the decision and was prepared to “keep fighting it” all the way to the Constitutional Court and European courts.

Amnesty International vowed in a statement to “continue to fight to break down the wall of impunity, to ensure that the crimes against humanity committed during Francoism are investigated and brought to justice.”

The United Nations has urged Spain to revoke the amnesty law, which prevents the prosecution not only of offences committed by political opponents of the regime, but also those carried out by “civil servants and public order agents” such as police.