Sunday, February 12, 2012

Kangaroo Court in Spain Condemns Country to bad Policies and Subservient Judges

Human Rights Watch’s Reed Brody had observed Garzón’s trial in Madrid. Brody says the case and poor decision by the Spanish Courts marks “a massive attack on the independence of the judiciary and on a very brave judge.”

What is not clear is why the Judge Baltazar Garzon is not allowed to appeal the ruling of the Spanish Court that has unjustly ruled in Madrid.

Brody also says, “[T]here were three cases against Garzón. I mean, this was a concerted effort by his enemies within the conservative Spanish judiciary essentially to get rid of him. And the first case, accusing him of failing to apply Spain’s amnesty law, got such a bad reaction internationally, but other cases were leapfrogged in front of that.
And in this case, he ordered that the alleged ringleaders of a massive corruption scandal—over 120 million euros, $180 million, involving payoffs within the now-ruling Popular Party—he ordered that the defendants be wiretapped, because, allegedly, the lawyers, who were in conversation with them, were laundering the money. And in fact, one of the lawyers was actually indicted for money laundering. He ordered the wiretaps on the recommendation of a prosecutor. When the case was moved to another jurisdiction, the new prosecutor recommended the wiretaps, and the new judge continued the wiretaps. And despite the fact that one of the lawyers was in fact indicted for laundering the proceeds of this scandal, the wiretaps were quashed. That’s OK. What then happened, though, is that he was actually prosecuted by the defendants. And the conservative judiciary accepted the case, and he has now been convicted of having abused his authority by ordering these wiretaps.”

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/10/spanish_judge_baltasar_garzn_disb

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