Baltasar Garzon, one of Spain’s most controversial judicial figures, has been found guilty of prevarication during the trials that led to the dismantling of one of Spain’s biggest political corruption cases of its young democracy. Garzon acquired his reputation during the early years of the Spanish democratic transition, as one of the most incessant prosecutor of political corruption and as an avid defender of human rights. He played a key role in the investigations and trial that put end to Spain’s GAL state terrorism against E.T.A. Furthermore, it was under his initiative that chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, was processed and found guilty of committing crimes against humanity. His efforts to re-open cases of genocide carried out by the Franquist army during the Spanish Civil War put him in the spotlight a few years ago. Now, he faces three criminal charges.
He has been accused of fraud based on conflict of interest and tax evasions during a series of conferences that happened in New York during 2005 and 2006, a trial in which even Emilio Botin, president of “Banco Santander”, is involved. In the second trail, he is being accused of breaking the amnesty of 1977; which guaranteed absolution for any crimes occurred during the Civil War and the Franquist Dictatorship. Finally, Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling found the judge to be guilty of prevarication during the Gürtel trials and investigations, and has been removed from court for 11 years, putting a sudden end to his judicial career. His accomplishments and controversies have not passed unattended for not only Spanish press and public opinion, but also for international judgement, which sided with the view and efforts of Garzon in the defense of international Human Rights. However, looking closer at the recent judgement, it seems reasonable to inquire if the sentence was not actually fair, and if Garzon did not exceed his powers as magistrate.
The Gürtel case is a national Spanish investigation carried out by Spanish police and fiscally, in order to bring down a complex and developed web of political corruption in the ranks of the “Popular party”, the main right-wing party in Spain. This web included mayors, councilors, and high ranked officials in several spanish provinces, which have been found guilty of having received primes for the approval of construction projects, influence peddling and prevarication. However, Garzon, who led the investigation, was accused of ordering the wire-tapping of conversations between lawyers and their accused clients, breaching in this way the right of a confidential client-lawyer relationship, necessary for the well-functioning of the judicial system. These wiretappings were ordered by Garzon and carried out by the spanish police, and formed part of the core of accusations carried out by the fiscally. Extensive evidence of this wiretapping has been provided, and the ruling finding Garzon guilty was supported by all of the members of the spanish Supreme Court.
Personally, my sentence is firm. Garzon committed a crime by ordering these wiretappings, and exceeded his powers as judge. However, I encourage everyone to follow closely his particular case, try to dive in deeper, and keep up with the forthcoming investigations and trials; and the almost assured appeals to the spanish Constitutional Courts and the European Courts of Justice. As for now, his future seems unclear, although a media figure such as Garzon has many open possibilities for his future.
(via NYT, El Pais)
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