FILE: Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon who famously indicted Augusto Pinochet charged with abuse of power
Record ID:
721440
FILE: Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon who famously indicted Augusto Pinochet charged with abuse of power
- Title: FILE: Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon who famously indicted Augusto Pinochet charged with abuse of power
- Date: 8th April 2010
- Summary: MADRID, SPAIN (FILE) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) SPANISH JUDGE BALTASAR GARZON ARRIVING AT VENUE FOR HIS LATEST BOOK PRESENTATION JOURNALIST LOOKING AT GARZON'S NEW BOOK "THE HORIZON LINE" VARIOUS OF GARZON HOLDING HIS LATEST BOOK GARZON ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALIST TAKING NOTES VARIOUS OF PHOTOGRAPHERS SPANISH JUDGE, BALTASAR GARZON SPEAKING DURING NEWS CONFERENCE NEWS CONFERENCE
- Embargoed: 23rd April 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Legal System,People
- Reuters ID: LVAD2G49BDCNE2RYWMNA3WN3Y925
- Story Text: The Spanish judge who won fame for his attempt to extradite former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for human rights abuses could go on trial himself after the Supreme Court ruled he
had likely abused his judicial powers.
Baltasar Garzon stands accused of improperly investigating alleged human rights crimes carried out under the dictatorship of Spain's Francisco Franco.
In 2008, he ordered an investigation into an estimated 100,000 people who were shot and buried in mass graves during Spain's 1936-39 Civil War and Franco's ensuing rule.
Suspects may not be tried in Spain for crimes committed more than 30 years ago. Franco died in 1975, and the crimes under investigation were perpetrated in the 1930s and 1940s.
Garzon dropped his investigation after a month following criticism by state prosecutors, but passed responsibility for exhuming mass graves to regional courts.
"Aware of his lack of jurisdiction and that the crimes reported lacked penal relevance when the proceedings began, he (Garzon) built a contrived argument to justify his control of the proceedings he initiated," Luciano Varela, an investigating magistrate on the Supreme Court said in the ruling.
The proceedings stem from a lawsuit brought against Garzon by the rightist union Manos Limpias, who were later joined by the group Libertad e Identidad and the far-right Falange party, which was powerful during the Civil War but is now marginalised.
Varela said those that had brought the legal action now had ten days to request a hearing or drop the charges. Court sources said that Garzon's defence team plan to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
Garzon faces up to 10 years in prison and a ban on working as a judge if found guilty.
MORE CASES Garzon's attempt to extradite Pinochet from Britain in 1998 to face charges of human rights abuses following his bloody 1973 coup set a precedent for the principal that crimes against humanity could be investigated anywhere.
He is also known for attempting to bring action against Israeli officials for a 2002 attack in the Gaza Strip and Bush administration officials for alleged torture at the U.S. military prison on Guantanamo Bay.
But Garzon is a divisive figure in Spain, praised by the descendants of civil war victims and members of the left for his attempt to investigate the crimes of Franco, but derided by conservatives as a publicity-seeking tool of the governing Socialists.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero recently praised Garzon for his moves against armed Basque separatist group ETA. His supporters accuse the right of a campaign of revenge to end his career.
Garzon faces two other Supreme Court enquiries: one for bugging corruption suspects linked to the opposition Popular Party, and another for dropping an investigation into the head of Banco Santander after receiving payments for giving courses sponsored by the bank in New York. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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