Public criticism is growing over the indictment of Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, who seeks to investigate disappearances during and after Spain’s civil war, with around 1,000 demonstrators showing their support for the judge in Madrid on Tuesday.

Garzón has been taken to court by right-wing groups, who claim that he overreached his judicial powers by launching an investigation in 2008 into the 1936-1939 Spanish civil war and the subsequent dictatorship of general Francisco Franco, which resulted in some 100,000 killings.

In February, the Spanish Supreme Court magistrate Luciano Varela ruled that Garzón had ignored a 1977 amnesty that covers crimes committed during the civil war.

Garzón appealed the decision, but last week Varela said in a written ruling that Garzón had been aware of his lack of jurisdiction. “Conscious of his lack of jurisdiction... he constructed artificial arguments to justify his control of the penal proceedings," Varela said.

Garzón’s lawyer then said that the judge would likely be suspended from his position at the national court, and that a trial against him, based on the suit by the right-wing groups, could start somewhere in June.

The right-wing groups include Manos Limpias, the Freedom and Identity association and the ultra-right Spanish Falange.

The judicial attacks against Garzón, who reached international fame in 1998 with his attempt to bring the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to justice, has sparked wide criticism both domestically and in the international fora.

Wide domestic and international support
On Tuesday a thousand demonstrators, including Spanish intellectuals and trade unionists, protested against the impending trial at Madrid’s Complutense University.

Garzón also enjoys international support, such as from the International Commission of Jurists, former International Criminal Court prosecutor Carla del Ponte and Chilean judge Juan Guzmán, who tried Augusto Pinochet in 1999.

Amnesty International Spain director Esteban Beltrán said last week that the 1977 Amnesty Law “tried to prevent the rights of truth, justice and reparation of the victims of the Civil War and the franquismo.”

“If this judgement occurs, it will be the first case that we know of wherein a judge, that tries to get hold of truth, justice and reparation for more than 100,000 disappeared, is tried,” Beltrán asserted, adding that Amnesty International will closely monitor the case.

Download the print version of the International Justice Tribune 104 (PDF file)

Subscribe to the International Justice Tribune