Celebrated Spanish judge Garzon to head Assange legal team
Source: AFP
LONDON — Famous Spanish human rights investigator Baltasar Garzon will lead the legal team representing WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, the whistleblower website announced on Tuesday ...
Garzon, best known for issuing an international arrest warrant against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, recently met with Assange at the embassy to discuss a new legal strategy, according to a statement approved by both men ...
Garzon will also strive to "show how the secret US processes against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have compromised and contaminated other legal processes, including the extradition process against Mr Assange," it added ...
Garzon was in February disbarred from his role as an investigating magistrate in Spain after he was found to have wiretapped conversations between defence lawyers and their clients ...
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he is an awesome man.Baltasar Garzón Real (Spanish pronunciation: [baltaˈsar ɣarˈ?on]; born 26 October 1955) is a former Spanish jurist who served on Spain's central criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional. He was the examining magistrate of the Juzgado Central de Instrucción No. 5, which investigates the most important criminal cases in Spain, including terrorism, organised crime, and money laundering.
In 1993–94 he was elected a deputy and briefly held a ministerial role in the Felipe González's socialist government. Following his return to the Audiencia Nacional, he led a series of investigations that helped convict a government minister as the head of the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL), a state terrorist group.
Garzón came to international attention on 10 October 1998 when he issued an international warrant for the arrest of former Chilean President, General Augusto Pinochet, for the alleged deaths and torture of Spanish citizens.
Garzón was accused of various irregularities by Manos Limpias and finally indicted on three different counts relating to a fraud trial, investigating Francoist crimes and taking bribes. He was suspended from judicial activity on 14 May 2010, pending trial.[1] He was given permission to work as a consultant at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for 7 months from May 2010.[2] On 9 February 2012 The Supreme Court of Spain convicted[3] him of illegally wiretapping conversations between suspects on remand for massive fraud and their lawyers who were believed to be moving their money beyond the reach of the court. The trial judge described this act as appropriate to a dictatorship and sentenced him to eleven years disqualification from judicial activity.[4]
A few days later, on 12 February, the fraud action was abandoned on a technicality[5] and he was acquitted of exceeding his authority in investigating the crimes of the Francoist era on 27th February 2012[6]
Garzón has stated that he will appeal to the Constitutional Court of Spain against his expulsion from the judiciary.[7][8] He apparently had infuriated[9] the Spanish far-right Falange[10][11] and Manos Limpias.[12
Nice gray hair.
