Editing Lluís Companys (section)

==Exile and execution==
A refugee in France in 1939 after the Civil War, Companys passed up various chances to leave France because his son Lluís was seriously ill in a clinic in [[Paris]].<ref name="Preston, Paul 2012 p. 493">Preston, Paul. (2012). ''The Spanish Holocaust.'' Harper Press. London p. 493</ref> His position became particularly perilous after [[Battle of France|Germany took France]] in June 1940.  In collaboration with the [[Spanish police]], the [[Gestapo]] arrested him in [[La Baule-les-Pins]] near [[Nantes]] on 13 August 1940. First detained in [[La Santé Prison]] in [[Paris]], he was then extradited by [[Nazi Germany|Nazi German]] authorities to Spain in early September 1940. He was imprisoned at [[Puerta del Sol]], [[Madrid]]'s central square, in the basement of the headquarters of the Dirección General de Seguridad (General Directorate of State Security) at the Real Casa de Correos ([[Royal House of the Post Office]]). Held there for five weeks, he was kept in solitary confinement, interrogated, starved, tortured and brutally beaten. Senior figures of the Francoist State visited his cell, insulted him and threw coins or crusts of bread at him.<ref name="Preston, Paul 2012 p. 493"/><ref>Juliá, Santos; Casanova, Julián; Solé i Sabaté, Josep Maria; Villarroya; Moreno, Francisco.'' Victimas de la guerra civil''. Ediciones Temas de Hoy. 1999. Madrid. p. 331</ref> 

[[File:Summari lluis companys.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Death sentence of Lluís Companys]]
In a military trial held in Barcelona in mid-October 1940,
<ref>The [[drumhead courts-martial]] carried out were based on the application of the Military Code for rebellion against all those who oppose the revolt. This meant that the real rebels against the legal authority condemned for the crime of ''rebellion, accession or aid the rebellion'' who had been loyal to the legitimate government.  Even [[Ramón Serrano Suñer]], [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (Spain)|Minister of Foreign Affairs]] at that time, recognized it years later by affirming that the entire legal basis of the facts of [[Spanish Civil War|Civil War]] were based on a "justice backwards" and concluded, "it was therefore an error configuring the offenses of rebellion and sedition in order to attribute this offenses to the defenders of republican government, because these – legally and even metaphysically – were not able to commit them".([https://books.google.com/books?id=4TKdAAAAMAAJ Solé, 1999])</ref> 
Companys was accused of military rebellion and sentenced to death. The trial lasted less than one hour and lacked legal guarantees.  During the trial, Companys was courageously defended by Ramón de Colubí, a young soldier who had fought in the war for the [[Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War)|rebels]].  Colubí sent a telegram to Franco pleading for clemency for Companys, to no avail.<ref name=vangurdia>{{cite web|url=http://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20151007/54437085130/novela-desvela-parentesco-entre-lluis-companys-y-su-abogado-ramon-de-colubi.html|title=Novela desvela parentesco entre Lluís Companys y su abogado Ramón de Colubí|date=July 10, 2015|work=La Vanguardia}}</ref>  In 2015 [[Víctor Gay Zaragoza]], a Catalan writer, found that Companys and Colubí were relatives.<ref name=vangurdia/>

Efforts to save Companys were useless, and at 6:30&nbsp;a.m. on 15 October 1940 he was executed at [[Montjuïc Castle]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=L5f7chobYqQC&dq=Companys+catalonia&pg=PT83 Gary McDonogh, Gary (2009) ''Iberian Worlds''. Taylor & Francis] At Google Books. Retrieved 17 June 2013.</ref>  Refusing to wear a blindfold, he was taken barefoot before a firing squad of Civil Guards, and, as they fired, Companys shouted 'Per Catalunya!' (For Catalonia!).<ref name="Burns">{{cite book|last=Burns|first=Jimmy|title=Barca: a people's passion|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2000|page=126}}</ref> The cause of death was given as 'traumatic internal hemorrhage'.<ref>Preston, Paul. (2012). ''The Spanish Holocaust.'' Harper Press. London p. 493</ref> He was the only democratically-elected president executed by fascism in Europe.<ref name="80years">{{cite web | last=Tomàs White | first=Cristina| title =80th anniversary of Catalan president's execution at hands of Francoist regime | publisher=Catalan News | url=https://www.catalannews.com/society-science/item/80th-anniversary-of-catalan-president-s-execution-at-hands-of-francoist-regime | date=2020-10-15 | access-date=2024-11-09 }}</ref>