Spain rights judge Garzon convicted of wiretapping
MADRID: Spain’s Supreme Court convicted judge Baltasar Garzon on Thursday in an illegal wiretapping case, ending the judicial career of a man who won world renown for pursuing human rights abuses.
“We condemn the accused, Baltasar Garzon, as the author of the crime of abusing his authority... to 11 years’ suspension from his duty as judge or magistrate,” the court’s ruling read.
Garzon, 56, who found international fame for trying to extradite Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, was found guilty of ordering illegal recordings of corruption suspects talking to their lawyers.
The suspension effectively ends Garzon’s career as a judge.
He is also awaiting judgment in a second trial for trying to investigate atrocities of the Franco era, in an alleged breach of an amnesty.
Garzon’s defenders say both trials are politically motivated bids to stop him prosecuting crimes committed during Spain’s 1936-1939 Civil War and the subsequent dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.
The sentence, passed unanimously by the seven judges of the Supreme Court, imposes “the definitive loss of the duty and the honors that he bears” as a judge of Spain’s National Court, the written judgment said.
It bans him from “obtaining during the duration of the sentence any employment or duty with judicial or governing functions within the judiciary” and imposes a small fine.
Garzon pleaded innocent, saying the wiretaps were legal since the lawyers themselves were implicated in the case and he wanted to prevent alleged money-laundering continuing while the suspects were in jail.
In a second trial which wrapped up on Wednesday, he was prosecuted for ordering an investigation into the disappearance of tens of thousands of people who victims’ associations say were murdered by Franco’s supporters.
Garzon argues that the acts were crimes against humanity and not subject to an amnesty.
No date has been set for a verdict in the second trial. If convicted in that case, he could receive a further 20-year suspension.
Garzon in 1998 ordered the extradition of Pinochet from Britain for alleged atrocities during Chile’s dictatorship. The judge has also pursued members of the former dictatorship in Argentina.
He has been suspended as a judge in Spain since May 2010 when the charges were brought against him and has been working as a consultant at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.