An 85-year-old doctor has gone on trial accused of abducting a baby in 1969 and giving her to another woman, the first person to be prosecuted over the "stolen babies" scandal that affected thousands in Spain.
Activists wearing yellow t-shirts marked with the slogan "Justice" protested outside the court demanding the re-opening of other cases dating back to the 1939 to 1975 rule of dictator Francisco Franco.
Campaigners say officials took babies from "unsuitable" mothers - often communists or leftists and gave them to families connected to the regime.
Dr Eduardo Vela is accused of falsifying documents, abduction of a child under seven years of age and staging a birth while he worked at the San Ramon hospital in Madrid. He denies any wrong-doing.
Bringing the charge is Ines Madrigal, a 49-year-old woman who accuses Dr Vela of forging her 1969 birth certificate to show her adopted mother as her biological parent.
Former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon recorded cases of about 30,000 Spanish children who were taken at birth during Franco’s rule.
They echo similar cases that took place during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship in Argentina, where courts have since handed out lengthy jail terms for the systematic theft of babies from political prisoners.
Activists say hundreds of similar cases have never come to court in Spain because of a lack of evidence or because the time limit to file a charge has passed.
In 2013 an 87-year-old nun, who worked with Mr Vela and allegedly controlled baby trafficking in Madrid, died before she was due to go on trial.
Mr Vela was interviewed briefly by police after a magazine in 1982 published interviews with several women who claimed they their babies had been taken from them after giving birth at San Ramon but the inquiry went nowhere.
He told investigators in 2013 that as the director of the clinic he often signed papers without reading them.
Interviewed by the BBC in 2011, Mr Vela grabbed a metal crucifix and said: "I have always acted in his name. Always for the good of the children and to protect the mothers."
