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Old May 12th, 2010 #20
alex revision
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Default Spain clears way for super-judge's trial

Spain clears way for super-judge's trial

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...p7_3QD9FL9C600

MADRID — Spain's Supreme Court has removed the last potential obstacle to putting on trial the crusading judge who indicted Augusto Pinochet and Osama bin Laden.

Judge Baltasar Garzon, who became world famous with cross-border justice cases, faces charges of knowingly overstepping his jurisdiction by launching a probe of Spanish Civil War atrocities that were covered by an amnesty.

The Supreme Court judge who indicted him last month, Luciano Varela, issued a ruling Wednesday that rejected an appeal by prosecutors on procedural grounds.

The prosecutors actually oppose trying Garzon. His indictment stems from a complaint that were filed by two civil groups and accepted by Varela.

An official with a judicial oversight board said Garzon's trial might start in two to three months, or perhaps as late as September.

On Tuesday Garzon asked for a leave of absence to accept a job offer at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

That might spare him the disgrace of being suspended from his post at the National Court, either when the trial starts or perhaps even earlier.

The oversight board, called the General Council of the Judiciary, was meeting Wednesday to discuss whether to grant Garzon a leave of absence.

In the event Garzon were suspended while waiting to transfer to The Hague, he would have to resign from his post at the National Court in order to take up that new job, the official with the oversight board said. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with board rules.

Garzon was charged last month with knowingly overstepping the bounds of his jurisdiction by launching in 2008 a probe of the execution or disappearance of more than 100,000 civilians at the hands of supporters of Gen. Francisco Franco during the 1936-39 war and in the early years of the Franco dictatorship.

Garzon denies any wrongdoing and says his probe was legitimate. If convicted, he faces removal from the National Court for up to 20 years.

Garzon is under investigation in two other cases as well: one involving money that a Spanish bank paid to sponsor human rights seminars he gave while on sabbatical in New York a few years ago, and another in connection with jailhouse wiretaps he ordered as part of a corruption probe.