Crusading Spanish judge found guilty
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People sign a giant banner displaying a picture of Spain's Baltasar Garzon at Puerta del Sol square in Madrid during a demonstration Thursday in support of the former judge, hours after the Supreme Court convicted him in an illegal wiretapping case.
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MADRID -- Spain's Supreme Court on Thursday convicted crusading human rights judge Baltasar Garzon of illegally ordering wiretapping in a corruption case and suspended him from the courts for 11 years.
His lawyer told EFE, the Spanish news agency, that Mr. Garzon, 56, felt an understandable "desolation and pain" in being barred from the judiciary, to which he had dedicated his life.
The ruling came in one of three cases against Mr. Garzon, the country's most prominent but also most contentious judicial personality, who has made aggressive use of the doctrine of universal jurisdiction for grave human rights crimes.
The judge gained abrupt fame in 1998 when Chile's former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was arrested in a London hospital on a warrant issued by Mr. Garzon. Though Pinochet, then 82, was judged too ill to be tried, the episode was a major step in the emergence of cross-border justice.
Mr. Garzon's spirit of activism has also antagonized some Spanish authorities and critics, who consider him self-aggrandizing. He dug deeply into corruption cases and ordered an inquiry into atrocities committed during the Spanish Civil War and the ensuing dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco, despite a 1977 general amnesty for crimes perpetrated during the war.
That 2008 investigation, closed after just a month, prompted the second case against Mr. Garzon, as fringe far-right groups argued that he had overstepped his authority. Conviction could result in a 20-year suspension.
The Spanish prosecutor's office has actively opposed both trials, saying there were no grounds for a criminal case. During the trial, it called for the charges to be dismissed because they had no basis in law.
Philippe Sands, who teaches international law at University College in London, expressed concern over the process. "This is very troubling; targeting an independent judge or prosecutor through the criminal justice system anywhere raises very serious concerns," he said. "To sanction a possible breach of ethics or misconduct is up to the professional organizations. To bring down the criminal justice system on an investigative judge for an alleged fault is to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It's almost unique in Europe."
His defenders, including international lawyers, judges, academics and human rights groups, have called the cases -- including an investigation into whether he had an improper financial relationship with Santander Bank -- politically motivated. On Thursday, many denounced the ruling.
The 7-0 ruling came in a 2008 corruption case in which Mr. Garzon ordered wiretaps to monitor conversations between lawyers and their clients.
In a case brought by the monitored defendants, the Supreme Court ruled that such an order not only contravened defense rights, but also "damaged the right to confidentiality."
There is no avenue to appeal, but Mr. Garzon could challenge the validity of the judicial process before Spain's Constitutional Court or the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, according to his lawyer, Francisco Baena Bocanegra.
First Published February 10, 2012 12:00 am
