A Spanish court has acquitted a retired doctor for stealing a baby at birth and giving her to another family about 50 years ago, but only because of the statute of limitations on the crime. The judges found that the doctor was responsible for the unlawful detention of a minor and falsifying official documents. This is Spain's first trial linked to the estimated thousands of suspected cases of babies stolen from their mothers during and after the Franco dictatorship. CGTN's Al Goodman reports from Madrid.

The verdict is in, in Spain's first trial over "stolen babies" and Ines Madrigal, who says she was one of them -- stolen at birth from her biological mother and given to another family -- is not fully satisfied with the court's ruling.

INES MADRIGAL PLAINTIFF "It's the first sentence we have on the stolen babies which recognizes that there was a theft, that they took me from my real mother. But we're not in agreement with the other part, the acquittal of Eduardo Vela."

The defendant, Eduardo Vela, is 85. A retired gynecologist and former hospital director. He denied the charges during the trial in Madrid. But the court ruled he stole baby Ines at birth, gave her to another family, and falsified documents to cover it up. Yet the judges acquitted him, ruling the statute of limitations for the crime had expired. Ines Madrigal, now 49, says she didn't even learn about the network of baby thefts in Spain until 2010, after the statute of limitations ended. She and her lawyer work with Spain's Stolen Babies association that estimates thousands of babies were stolen, during and after the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, to give or sell to conservative, pro-regime families.

GUILLERMO PEÑA LAWYER "We think it's best to consider that a crime can't have a statute of limitations when someone isn't even aware they were a victim of it."

AL GOODMAN MADRID, SPAIN "For many in Spain, the issue of the stolen babies represents one of the darkest chapters of Franco's dictatorship. And the sentence, in this first case to go to trial, is unlikely to end the controversy."

A throng of reporters from Spanish and international media have followed every step of the trial, and was on hand for the verdict. Madrigal and her lawyer quickly announced an appeal to the Supreme Court.

INES MADRIGAL PLAINTIFF "We need to use this sentence as a trampoline, to give us strength, to take it to the Supreme Court and let them make a final judgment."

Plenty of supporters were on hand, like this woman who says her son was stolen at birth.

CRISTINA MORACHO MARTIN MOTHER OF THE 'STOLEN BABY' "We don't want to take away anyone's children. But they did steal ours. We want the truth to be known, because we have lost our children's kisses, their first steps, and their first words."

She says prosecutors shelved her case, saying her son was dead and buried. But she never saw him again and insists that's a lie.

GUILLERMO PEÑA LAWYER "The bigger the obstacle, the stronger we'll be. We didn't get this far for nothing."

Al Goodman, CGTN, Madrid.