An Argentinian judge investigating cases that happened during the Franco dictatorship in Spain has indicted a former Spanish minister on four counts of homicide. Judge Maria Servini de Cuba, sitting in Buenos Aires, issued the ruling against Rodolfo Martín Villa, 87, interior minister between 1976 and 1979. The judge wrote that she considered Martín Villa “the prima facie perpetrator criminally responsible for the crime of aggravated homicide, repeated on at least four occasions, of which Pedro María Martínez Ocio, Romualdo Barroso Chaparro, Francisco Aznar Clemente and Germán Rodríguez Saíz were victims”. Martín Villa told the Spanish newspaper ABC: “I am calm. I will appeal.” Spain passed an amnesty law in 1977 that pardoned crimes committed by the Franco dictatorship. Hundreds of Spaniards have tried to get around this by turning to an Argentinian court, under the principle of universal justice, to address crimes committed against them and their families during General Francisco Franco’s 36-year rightwing dictatorship. Franco ruled over Spain from 1939 to 1975. Servini wrote that Martín Villa had played a key role in the repressive structures of the dictatorship, which continued in the years immediately after Franco’s death in 1975. “It is great news for the victims, who have been claiming for many years,” said Máximo Castex, a lawyer for the relatives of the victims. The judge ordered Martín Villa, who lives in Madrid, to be detained but said it was unlikely to happen. Fernando Goldaracena, the ex-minister’s lawyer, did not reply to requests for comment.