Spanish judge takes witness stand at his own trial
Garzon, who probed right wing atrocities during and after the Spanish Civil War, accused of overstepping his jurisdiction
Madrid: The Spanish judge known for pioneering cross-border justice in cases of alleged crimes against humanity sat in the dock yesterday as a criminal defendant and defiantly rejected charges he overstepped his jurisdiction by probing right wing atrocities during and after the Spanish civil war.
Baltasar Garzon removed his flowing black judge's robe before taking his place behind a small table in the ornate main chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court, a stone's throw from another courthouse where Garzon achieved rock star status among rights groups over the past decade.
The session began with the seven-judge panel overseeing the trial announcing it had rejected defence motions seeking to have the case thrown out, on grounds including alleged partiality by the judge who indicted Garzon in 2010.
Garzon declined to take questions from his accusers, which are two right wing groups. Prosecutors say he committed no crime. This is a quirk of Spanish law: private citizens can seek to bring criminal charges against someone even if prosecutors disagree.
Garzon is perhaps best-known for indicting the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, having him arrested while Pinochet visited London in an ultimately failed bid to bring him to Madrid for trial.
He also indicted Osama Bin Laden in 2003 over the September 11 attacks. Under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction — the idea that some crimes are so heinous they can be tried anywhere — Garzon and colleagues at the National Court went after rulers and officials from such disparate, far-flung places as Israel and Rwanda.
At yesterday's session, Garzon said many of the crimes he probed, such as forced disappearances in the Spanish Civil War, were "permanent" because no bodies were found and relatives were thus denied the right to give their loved ones a proper burial.
He insisted killing and disappearances of civilians at the hands of Franco supporters during and in the years right after the war were systematic and thus a crime against humanity, and that his probe was justified.
