From The New York Times
June 8, 2010
Spanish Judge Says His Fight for Human Rights Will Endure
By RAPHAEL MINDER
MADRID — Baltasar Garzón, the Spanish judge who attained fame for pursuing international leaders before Spanish courts, says he is confident his country will continue to pursue accused criminals worldwide whatever the outcome of his own judicial travails.
Mr. Garzón, who went after leaders like Augusto Pinochet of Chile, was himself suspended last month after being charged with abusing his powers to investigate Spanish Civil War atrocities.
“I believe the seeds have been sown, despite the possible contradictions of a country that investigates outside but cannot now investigate inside,” Mr. Garzón said in Madrid last week in his first newspaper interview in a year.
“The principle of universal jurisdiction has in fact germinated and is a conquest that cannot be lost and will not be lost,” he said. “However, as always happens with international justice, it’s about two steps forward, then one step back, then one forward and then two back — so we advance with a lot of difficulties. Why? Because there are a lot of interests at play — judicial as well as political and diplomatic.”
Mr. Garzón, 54, would not discuss his planned defense against the charges against him. Besides those relating to his controversial Spanish Civil War investigation, Mr. Garzón also stands accused in two separate cases, one over personal funding received from a leading Spanish bank and one over allegedly illegal eavesdropping as part of a political corruption investigation.
Mr. Garzón was indicted last April by Judge Luciano Varela for allegedly overstepping his authority and ignoring a 1977 general amnesty that covers crimes perpetrated during the Spanish Civil War. In October 2008, Mr. Garzón had launched a politically sensitive investigation into tens of thousands of deaths and disappearances during the war and the ensuing dictatorship of Franco.
The controversy over his jurisdiction had already forced Mr. Garzón to abandon the investigation within a month, but legal action was still taken against him by far-right activists. Mr. Varella’s decision was then upheld a month later by the body that oversees Spain’s judiciary, which decided to suspend Mr. Garzón pending his trial.
His suspension on May 14 marked an abrupt role reversal for Mr. Garzón, who established his reputation as an international defender of human rights by making extensive use of Spain’s doctrine of universal jurisdiction, which opens the door to prosecution within Spain of crimes committed outside the country. On the domestic front, meanwhile, he also fought against political corruption, as well as violence perpetrated by ETA, the Basque separatist group.
However his investigations have long made him one of Spain’s most polemic figures. Detractors have also questioned his motivations after his brief stint in domestic politics in the 1990s as a senior member of the Socialist party.
Although he was suspended as a judge pending the outcome of the cases against him, Mr. Garzón was given permission to work as a consultant to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Mr. Garzón said that he did not expect to stay in the Netherlands beyond December and that he was not considering another job switch should his legal problems worsen. If found guilty of knowingly contravening a 1977 general amnesty, Mr. Garzón could be suspended for as long as 20 years from the bench, which would effectively end his career as a judge in Spain.
Asked, however, whether he had harbored grander international ambitions, Mr. Garzón said: “I had not thought about this and I would lie if I said yes or if I said no. Until now my work here absorbed me fully.”
Mr. Garzón, who has targeted the United States because of accusations of torture at its Guantánamo prison camp, expressed optimism that President Barack Obama would reverse “sooner rather than later” a decision by the Bush administration not to join the International Criminal Court, which was set up eight years ago.
“The court can now function, but of course with the U.S. it would be a lot better,” said Mr. Garzón, adding that Mr. Bush’s decision had been “one of the worst moments for me.”
In The Hague, Mr. Garzón will use his experience “in cases that are similar to what I have dealt with in the context of fight against terrorism, organized crime and cases of universal jurisdiction.”
Representatives from the ICC’s 111 signatory nations are currently meeting in Kampala, Uganda, to review the court’s role and work. The court has come under criticism particularly for its slowness to bring cases to trial, but also recently over generous spending on its inmates and their visiting relatives. Asked for his own assessment of the court, Mr. Garzón said “this tribunal is still in complete development.”
He added: “To bring a case there is complicated, but I still think faster than in many countries.”
Mr. Garzón rejected suggestions that his crusade against human rights abuses had become too personal to be taken over by one or more of his lower-profile colleagues, should his legal problems put an end to his own career.
“Spain has had a preponderant role in terms of universal criminal justice and of course this leadership is now under question for obvious reasons, but there are ongoing cases and this movement isn’t just a question of Baltazar Garzón or not, but of all those who’ve been involved,” he said.
Still, Dolores Delgado, a leading Spanish prosecuting attorney who has worked closely with Mr. Garzón, said in a separate interview that his departure was a lasting blow.
“He was a pioneer who managed, from a small state, to ignite a concept of international justice that was dead until he started,” she said. “What happens now? He has left and it is very unlikely that another figure like him can emerge.”
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