MADRID, Spain - A Spanish judge opened a criminal investigation Thursday into atrocities committed during the Spanish Civil War and ensuing right-wing dictatorship, launching the first official probe into one of the darkest chapters of the nation's history.

Judge Baltasar Garzon of the National Court said in a 68-page writ that he has jurisdiction to probe the execution or disappearance of tens of thousands of civilians during the 1936-39 war and under the rule of Gen. Francisco Franco.

An estimated 500,000 people died in the civil war and both sides committed atrocities against civilians: supporters of Franco, the general who rose up against an elected, leftist Republican government and ultimately ousted it, and those who backed that government.

Garzon is famous for bringing terrorism and crimes-against-humanity cases against figures such as the late former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998 and al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2003.

Then, he acted under Spain's observance of the so-called principle of universal justice, under which crimes against humanity can be prosecuted here even if they are alleged to have been committed in another country.

In this case, Garzon argued that there was a systematic campaign by the Franco regime to eliminate his opponents and hide their bodies and that this is grounds for a crimes-against-humanity case which he says has no statute of limitations.

Garzon names the late Franco and 34 other late wartime generals or members of his government as the instigators of the campaign.

The judge ordered that their death certificates be shown to him so he can certify that, as deceased persons, they cannot be held criminally liable for atrocities.

But he also ordered the Interior Ministry to identify senior members of the Falange Espanola, the political party associated with the Franco regime, to determine if they can be charged or, if deceased, declared no longer criminally liable.

In his writ, Garzon ordered the exhumation of 19 common graves, including one believed to hold the remains of Federico Garcia Lorca, Spain's most widely acclaimed 20th century poet, who was executed in the opening days of the war.

Garzon is essentially focusing on people killed by the pro-Franco side in the war.

In his writ, he noted that the Franco regime did a thorough accounting of pro-Franco civilians killed by the Republican side and gave them proper burials. British historian Paul Preston, an acknowledged authority on the Spanish Civil War, puts this figure at about 55,000.

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