Baltasar Garzón

Baltasar Garzón Real (born October 26, 1955 in Torres, Jaén, Spain) is a prominent judge (investigating magistrate) of Spain. Garzón currently sits on Spain's highest criminal court (Sala 5 of the Audiencia Nacional), the Audiencia Nacional. Garzón is known in Spain as "Super Judge" or "Judge-Star."

International cases

Garzón rose to international prominence in 1998 for his issue of an arrest warrant for former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet over the deaths and torture of Spanish citizens during Pinochet's regime, using the Chilean Truth Commission (1990-91) report as the basis for the warrant. He has repeatedly expressed a desire to investigate former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in connection with a plot in the 1970s known as Operation Condor.[1]

Garzón also opened the gates to charges of genocide being filed in Spain against Argentine military officers of genocide on the disappearance of Spanish citizens during Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship. In April 2001, he requested that the Council of Europe remove the immunity from prosecution enjoyed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy as a member of the Council's parliamentary assembly.

At one point, Garzón had a public and very heated argument with Subcomandante Marcos.

In December 2001, Garzón launched an inquiry into the offshore accounts of Spain's second largest bank BBVA for alleged money laundering offences. In January 2003, he fiercely criticised the United States government over the detention of al-Qaida suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He also campaigned strongly against the 2003 Iraq war.

Garzón issued indictments for five Guantanamo detainees, including Spaniard Abderrahman Ahmad. Ahmad was extradited to Spain on February 14, 2004.

Spanish cases

In 1993, he went into politics, running for the Cortes Generales on the party list of then ruling party PSOE. He was also declared head of a strengthened National Plan Against Drugs by Spanish prime minister Felipe González. He resigned this post shortly after, however, complaining of lack of support from the government.

His later investigations helped the conviction of a PSOE minister as head of the GAL state terrorist groups. This was one of the factors that lead to PSOE's defeat in the next elections.

Garzón has also fought against Basque terrorists:In July 1998 he instructed a case against Orain SA, the Basque communication company that published the newspaper Egin and ruled its radio station Egin Irratia. Garzón ordered to close both media and sent some of the company officers to prison. Egin was allowed to reopen more than a year after by the Audiencia Nacional, but Orain SA was already in bankrupt, and its market was already covered by the new newspaper Gara. Later Garzón investigated Gara publishers.

Garzón also ordered to close Egunkaria the only newspaper wholly written in the Basque language.

He also investigated Jesús Gil, former mayor of Marbella and owner of Atlético de Madrid, on grounds of corruption.

In October 2002 he suspended the operations of the Batasuna party for three years, alleging it is part of the armed group ETA. Because of this activity, he is viewed with contempt by Basque nationalists who see him attacking Basque culture beyond ETA terrorism.

Bibliography

Cuento de Navidad: es posible un mundo diferente (Christmas tale: A different world is possible) Ediciones de la Tierra (2002)
Un mundo sin miedo (A world without fear) Plaza & Janes, S.A. and Debolsillo (February 2005)
*Prologue of ¿Y si mi hijo se droga? Claves prácticas para prevenir, saber y actuar (And if my son uses drugs? Practical tips to prevent, know, and act) Begoña del Pueyo, Alejandro Perales (Editorial Grijalbo) (June 2005)
La lucha contra el terrorismo y sus límites (The fight against terrorism and its limits) Adhara Publicaciones, S.L. (February 2006)
* Denis Robert, La justice ou le chaos, Stock, 1996. Interviews and portrait of seven anticorruption judges: Bernard Bertossa, Edmondo Bruti Liberati, Gherardo Colombo, Benoît Dejemeppe, Baltasar Garzon Real, Carlos Jimenez Villarejo, Renaud Van Ruymbeke

Critics

Critics complain against his perceived eagerness for public attention; this, they claim, may have led to hastily prepared investigations ending in acquittal verdicts.

External links

*Proposal to award Garzón the Nobel Peace Prize.
*Desenmascarar a Garzón, Spanish language articles against Garzón from Basque leftists (2001).
*Profile: Spain's most famous investigator, BBC, August 23, 2002