The Garzon case
Translated by Alanna Jardine.
The following three articles were found on the El Pais website, they are in regards to three cases open against one of Spain’s most formidable judges, Baltasar Garzón. Garzón has been involved in many high profile cases, notably including the extradition of the Chilean dictator General Pinochet as well as charges of genocide against Argentines for the atrocities committed against Spanish nationals. His more recent work has been to help the victims’ families whose relatives were killed or ‘disappeared’ by the Franco regime. However, this investigation has brought about mixed feelings in Spain: while the victims’ families have expressed their desire for the probe and their support for Garzón, others feel that he has overstepped his boundaries in initiating such an undertaking.
Source texts: “Familiares de víctimas del franquismo deciden concentrarse a diario en apoyo del juez Garzón” (later updated as “Las víctimas acudirán a protestar todos los días a la Audiencia”), “Explicar lo inexplicable”, and “El Supremo rectifica y convoca a la prensa española para explicar las causas contra Garzón”.
Families of Franco’s Victims Decide to Congregate Daily in Support of Judge Garzón: his lawyers have agree at meeting the meet every day at 8pm in front of the Audencia Nacional until the 22 of May
Natalia Junquera, Madrid 14/04/2010
“The people are very, very eager to go out to the streets”. Carlos Agüero, memory repression coordinator for the Industrial Relations department at Madrid’s Universidad Complutense, was found this morning with an abundance of family members of the victims’ of the Franco Regime asking them to assemble displays of their support for Judge Baltasar Garzón. An assembly, after it has busily convened all morning, has decided to congregate in front of the doors of the Audencia Nacional every day from now until May 22 at 8 o’clock, when the General Counsel of the Judiciary will gather to decide on the judges’ suspension. Meanwhile, followers organized a large demonstration of support for the judge, on the 24th, all across Spain. The families of Franco’s victims, many now older than 70, have marched throughout the mornings through the university campus becoming experts in legal issues. They know perfectly well the name of the Supreme Court judge and that he is ordering the case against Garzón by opening an investigation in which the people asked him to pursue. They speak with straightforwardness of the law of amnesty, of the European Human Rights Convention, of the United Nations declaration against the use of force. And yet they are not resigned. “We are sad but we are going to do all that we can for Judge Garzón”, explained a relative during the congregation.
The symbolic confinements, which will also be prolonged every day from 10-20 hours until the 22nd of May, they began today at 6pm with the presence of actress Pilar Bardem, actor Juan Diego Botto, writer Rosa Regás, representative Joan Herrera, and reporter Miriam Lagoa. The symbolic confinement ended today with a new assembly outlining some organizational aspects for support acts for Judge Garzón. Tomorrow a new congregation will begin that will be repeated until May 22nd at 8 o’clock. Tomorrow, also at 8 o’clock, there will be a recital of poems by Civil War authors as well as a concert with Luis García Montero and Luis Pastor. The organizers will also begin to screen an uninterrupted documentary on themes related to historic memories. They have installed a ballot box to collect money and finance the performances all the while gaining firm support for the judge, already they have 100 more supporters.
But the mobilization of support for Garzón will not be a unique one. The students of Universidad Complutense have been called to another rally to express their support for the cleric of the institution, Carlos Berzosa, who has given university facilities over to hold events in support of the Audenica Nacional Judge. Carlos Agüero explains that Berzosa has been denounced by the extreme right-wing pseudosindicato group Manos Limpias (Clean Hands).
Editorial: Explaining the Inexplicable: The Supreme Court calls to the foreign press to justify their Decisions about Garzón
The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court has used a procedure so far unprecedented in their practice and customs to explain its actions against Judge Baltasar Garzón. Through the technical cabinet, the highest body of jurisdiction has convened a meeting to which correspondents of foreign mass media have been invited in order to explain the legal aspects and motivations of the three cases against Garzón.
Aside from the bizarre nature of such a meeting, it was conspicuous that only foreign journalists convened. Why were Spanish journalists, who usually cover legal informational, discriminated against and not called to cover the high profile cases? Perhaps it was considered that the foreign press is not sufficiently informed or do they have poor professional preparation in order to understand the intricacies of the Spanish justice system. If a court decides to disclose certain aspects of its activity, which it considers insufficiently clarified – something questionable in its self, since the court speaks for their orders and judgments – in no case would it make sense to choose who can and cannot lead the coverage of the trial. But the Second Chamber of the Supreme court has to apply such an obscure and strange formula for the issue of jurisdiction, as explained by the informative press briefing, also the orders and decisions of Judge Garzón are unclear and pose compression problems for everyone, foreign and Spanish.
Regarding the proceedings against Garzón for crimes against the Franco regime, it is not only the procedural aspects that generate concern in much of Spanish society and abroad: it is the root of the issue in the case. The procedural legal aspects may be explained to the journalists, but it will remain incomprehensible to the families of victims of Franco who still lie unidentified in mass graves to criminally prosecute a judge who has tried to satisfy their need for the truth.
Instead of calling an absurd press conference to explain something that does not have an explanation, the Supreme Court should respond by taking under its’ wing the demands for identification and exhumation of mass graves where victims of Franco still lie. And the Supreme Court should be at the forefront of this task, instead of persecuting Garzón for taking up this case.
Supreme Court rectified and calls Spanish press to explain the cases against Garzón: the high court had only informed foreign press of the irregularities of the proceedings against the judge
Julio M Lazaro, Madrid, 14/04/2010.
The Supreme Court has corrected the call to an unprecedented informative briefing for correspondents of foreign media in Spain to explain the peculiarities of the three cases open against Audiencia Nacional Judge Baltasar Garzón, which has cause a flood of protests in the international press. The high court has released a public notice today inviting the national press to participate.
In the letter, the Supreme Court says that neither the President nor the judges who make up the Second Chamber of the court are the authors of the announcement, but all responded to the wishes expressed by some of the guest correspondents. The notice says it was the press office of the high court who had established an informal meeting with a lawyer from the Technical Office of the Supreme Court, attached to the Second Chamber. The press release concludes: “Obviously, this informal meeting can be attended by all national media journalists who want to.”
