Spanish judge convicted for abuse of power

Philippine Times Friday 10th February, 2012

MADRID - Famous human rights crusader and Spanish judge known for his role in the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and attempts to get his extradition from London, has been convicted for authorizing illegal wiretapping of prison detainees and barred from the bench for 11 years.

For 56-year-old Baltasar Garzon, known for his landmark judgments in human rights cases, this is the most spectacular fall from grace and possibly a close of his judicial career.

Garzon has been charged guilty of authorizing illegal recordings of conversations between lawyers and detainees accused of paying off leaders of Spain's ruling Popular Party in exchange for money-spinning lucrative contracts.

The lawyers of the detainees later filed a lawsuit claiming that the wiretapping violated their constitutional right of attorney-client privilege.

The Spanish Supreme court described his action in the financial irregularities case as "arbitrary' and likened it to those by authorities in totalitarian regimes.

Apart from being debarred from the bench for 11 years, Garzon has been fined 2,500 euros, but not given any prison term.

Garzon has pledged to appeal against the ruling to the country's Constitutional Court, and possibly the European Court of Human Rights.

There two other cases filed against him. In one he faces charges of ignoring a 1977 state-issued pardon by trying to examine the disappearance of 114,000 people during the three year Spanish civil war period following the Franco's military uprising in 1936.

The war ended when Franco's forces defeated Republican and leftist fighters. Franco's dictatorship continued until his death. Mass graves from the regime are still being unearthed.

In his defence, Garzon testified in court Wednesday that as there was no national census of how many people disappeared or their identities, he decided to investigate because he considered those to be "permanent crimes" which still affect their descendants.

The other case pertains to banking corruption, with Garzn facing charge of having accepted payment to drop investigations into allegations against Santander banking group chief executive Alfredo Senz of making false accusations against debtors.

After the court verdict In a statement late Thursday, Garzon vowed to appeal against the court verdict, stating he had been convicted in "an unjust and predetermined manner.".

The court sentence, Garzon's statement said, "Eliminates all possibility to investigate corruption and related crimes by opening spaces of impunity, and seriously contributing to reduced independence for Spanish judges."

In his own defence, Garzon had told the court that the phone tapping, ordered in early 2009, were backed by state prosecutors.

In the wake of the three cases against him, Garzon was suspended in 2010. For the last two years he has been working as a legal adviser on human rights cases outside of Spain.