Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon leaves Spain»s Supreme court in Madrid yesterday.
Famous human rights crusader, the Spanish judge who won fame with his attempt to extradite former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in the 1990s, is barred from office for eleven years for abusing judicial powers. A Madrid Court ruled today Baltasar Garzon is guilty of authorizing illegal recording of defense lawyers’ conversations.
The 55-year-old lawyer faced three cases linked to his investigations into human rights abuses, corruption and other offences. Among the judges’ supporters were victims of Spain’s right-wing dictatorship, which lasted until the late 1970s, and a representative of an Argentine human rights group, who see Garzon as a hero.
The case against the suspended High Court judge involves allegations he illegally authorized police to record the conversations of lawyers with their clients in custody. All three cases are private prosecutions, brought by individuals and organizations rather than the state. Garzon has dismissed the accusations and Spain’s public prosecutor has recommended his acquittal on all the charges.
Garzon is famed at home for leading an investigation into death squads run by the Socialist government in the 1980s in its conflict with Basque regional separatists, a probe credited with helping the centre-right defeat the left in 1996 elections.
He has also attracted critics, who have accused him of seeking the limelight with high-profile international cases involving prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and victims who disappeared during the 1970s dictatorship in Argentina.
Garzon is also accused of violating an amnesty law by ordering an investigation into the killing of tens of thousands of civilians during the four-decade dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, who died in 1975.
A number of international lawyers, human rights organizations and left-wing artists, including Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar, have come out in support of Garzon.
Garzon’s attempt to extradite Pinochet from Britain in 1998 to face charges of human rights abuses following the dictator’s 1973 coup in Chile set a precedent for the principle that crimes against humanity can be investigated anywhere.
buenosairesherald.com