January 24 has been chosen as the annual International Day of the Endangered Lawyer because on this day in 1977 four human right lawyers and a colleague were murdered in their office at Calle Atocha 55 in Madrid. Four others were seriously injured, but survived the attack.
This horrible event is also known as the Atocha Massacre.
The perpetrators all had links to neo-fascist organizations opposed to democracy. Those involved in the massacre and their accomplices were sentenced to imprisonment. Doubts remain as to whether all guilty persons were brought to justice.
Writing on the 40th anniversary of the massacre, journalist Juancho Dumall noted: ‘It was a terrorist act that marked the future of the country in a way that the murderers would never have expected and, instead, was the one desired by the victims’.
This event took place during the transition period after the death of dictator Franco in 1975. Spain was on the brink of a civil war, while a progressive Spanish politician tried to change the regime in a democracy from within. This transition process was under great pressure as a result of the attack, and this made for a very worrying few weeks. It is said that it was former Prime Minister Suárez who, in the absence of a feared communist rise, legalized the communist party PCE. Historians considered this decision a decisive factor in the success of the Spanish transition.
Of the perpetrators, who had ties to far-right parties and organizations, one was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, another fled to Brazil and the third ended up in prison in Bolivia for drug smuggling. Hans Gaasbeek published an article in the Liber Amicorum for professor Peter van Koppen: Beacons in Legal Psychology. This article gives a clear picture of the Foundation’s working methods in the Philippines. The article describes the ongoing murders of lawyers in the Philippines. The Foundation offers continuous support to colleagues over the years.