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: JURIST - The Paper Chase

Spain high court charges judge Garzon with abuse of power in Franco probe

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

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[JURIST] The Spanish Supreme Court on Wednesday charged National Court judge Baltasar Garzon with abuse of power for the investigation of war crimes allegedly committed under Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War. In 2008, Garzon ordered the exhumation of 19 mass graves in Spain in order to assemble a definitive national registry of Civil War victims, despite a 1977 amnesty law. Investigating magistrate Luciano Varela ruled that it is likely Garzon committed abuse of power by conducting the investigation. Garzon's lawyer plans to challenge the charges on appeal and has described the proceedings as "contaminated." No trial date has been set. If convicted, Garzon could be removed from the bench. After a February ruling that Garzon may have exceeded his jurisdictional authority by launching the investigation, the Spanish Supreme Court ruled last month that he could be formally charged. Garzon has consistently defended the validity of the investigation by insisting that he acted within the bounds of the law and appropriately applied the law at all times. The Supreme Court agreed to review Garzon's actions last May in response to a complaint filed by Manos Limpias, a union of public servants in Spain, which alleged that Garzon did not have the requisite jurisdictional authority to launch the investigation. Just one month after Garzon launched the investigation in 2008, Spanish prosecutors and other political figures voiced their concern by challenging the validity of the investigation. Garzon is widely known for using universal jurisdiction extensively in the past to bring several high-profile cases, including those against Osama bin Laden and former Latin American dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on April 07, 2010 (boomark / email).