Eloise HorsfieldSPANISH judge Baltasar Garzon has been found guilty of tapping conversations between corruption suspects and their defence lawyers.
Garzon has been banned from the legal profession for 11 years, in the first of three cases against him.
The Supreme Court ruled that 56-year-old Garzon, a human rights judge who achieved world fame after ordering the arrest of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, would not be allowed to appeal.
Garzon, apparently ‘tremendously affected’ by his senteince, is said to be investigating whether he can take the case to the Constitutional Court or the European Court of Human Rights.
Garzon is also facing power abuse charges after ordering in 2008 an investigation into the disappearance of 113,000 people during Spain’s Civil War and the subsequent Franco dictatorship.
At the time, the prosecution argues, the alleged crimes were protected by an amnesty.
A third case accuses Garzon accepting bribes from Santander Bank.
The outcome of the second and third cases is expected to be decided within the next few weeks.
To discover more about Garzon, see our feature Where justice meets farce: Garzon, the Spanish ‘superjudge’
o buggar …… another light goes out
que vergüenza ?
a sad day for Spain the brown mob shows it is still omnipresent and can bite ….
As exoected judgement. Spain is still truly in the hands of Franco-ites.
Maybe always destined to be a poor backwater of Europe, riddled with corruption.
I think that it´s a good notice. The judges can´t violate elemental rights.
The pression of left groups against tribunal supremo have been titanic. It´s a good notice for Spanish justice.
AA, Judges can and do “violate elemental rights” when thought necessary. He was aiding an investigation into massive fraud and maybe this was the only method he could use to break the cover-ups by the criminals involved.
AA,
are you writng your post from a ‘secure’ place, anyway you are good for a laugh.
You are at least aware that all can see you bitterly regret the passing of Fascism.
Nearly all Spanish judges are corrupt and most have come from a Fascist family as Antonio2 says – Spain is still run by the old Fascists, it’s just that now they have discarded their WW11 German helmets and can’t take people for a ‘walk’ from which they never return.
You must hate the fact that now the mass graves are being found and the murdered opponents of Franco can at last get be buried with dignity and their families reach some kind of closure.
Keep posting – like I say, you are good for a laugh.
The tragedy of course is that the western allies did’nt enter Spain in 1945 and re-instate the democratically elected republican government.
Antonio2, Artículo 51.2 de la ley orgánica general penitenciaría is very clear. Only in terrorism. In USA, England or Germany a Judge never spy a lawyer becouse the right of defense is destroyed. The judge knows what is going to tell the prisioner.
This trial is the best for civil rigths. A judge cant do what they want. Spain is a democracy, not cuba, china or soviet russia. We dont want a policial state.