Sentencing Spain's 'Superjudge': Why Baltasar Garzón Is Being Punished
Sentencing Spain's 'Superjudge': Why Baltasar Garzón Is Being Punished
By Lisa Abend / MadridFriday, Feb. 10, 2012
Baltasar Garzón is one of the most renowned magistrates in the world, so tireless in his quest for justice that national boundaries and foreign jurisdictions failed to stop him. On Thursday, however, Garzón himself was found guilty of criminal behavior. Best known for arresting Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for crimes against humanity, the Spanish judge was convicted by a Madrid court for ordering illegal eavesdropping; he was barred from practicing law for 11 years. Although many observers in and out of Spain understand why these particular charges were brought against the judge, both the extraordinary treatment he has received, and the fact that this case is one of three pending against him, have convinced many that Garzón is the victim of a witch hunt. For them, Thursday's verdict only confirms that sense.
Garzón has long been a divisive figure in Spain. From his seat on the National Court, he has gone after crime mobs, terrorists and, in the 1980s, his own government's dirty war against militant Basque separatists. As the world's foremost practitioner of universal jurisdiction, he has also investigated human-rights abuses in Guatemala and Guantánamo. In addition to famously ordering Pinochet's extradition, he also convicted Argentine naval officer Adolfo Scilingo for crimes against humanity in that country's dirty war.
But his reputation as an unyielding defender of justice did not protect him from — and indeed may have contributed to — being prosecuted himself. Since 2010, he has been indicted for criminal abuse of power in three separate cases. One, which concluded hearings yesterday and is currently awaiting sentencing, questions the legality of his investigation into the disappearance of an estimated 114,000 people during Spain's 1936-39 civil war and the early years of the dictatorship that followed. Another centers on his alleged dismissal of charges against Emilio Botín, director of Banco Santander, after the bank sponsored a course at New York University for which the judge purportedly received an honorarium.
More:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2106537,00.html#ixzz1lyEbJJvf
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