Socialist government ties terrorist rewards to those "who want to engage in income-generating projects, and will not be paid out in cash." Now I really am confused! Veterans can't be trusted with cash. They might do silly things like build houses and support families. The bonuses go to proper socialist 'income generating projects' -- they generate clean, non-taxable (indeed unrecorded) income for the bosses.
MADRID: Thousands of people rallied Sunday in Spain's capital in support of the disbarred judge famous for taking on international human rights cases. Baltasar Garzon, 56, was convicted Feb. 9 by the Supreme Court, marking a spectacular fall from grace for the nation's most prominent jurist. The seven-judge panel disbarred him for 11 years, effectively ending Garzon's career unless he can have their decision reversed on appeal.
A large square outside the main gates of the Supreme Court filled with around 10,000 people, many carrying placards and banners calling for justice for the former judge and chanting, "Garzon, friend, Spain is with you."
In Thursday's verdict, the court ruled that Garzon acted unlawfully in ordering jailhouse wiretaps of detainees talking to their lawyers, the court said, adding that his actions "these days are only found in totalitarian regimes."
The case was just one of three against Garzon, who is still awaiting a verdict in another trial on charges of initiating a probe in 2008 of rightist atrocities committed during and after the Spanish civil war of 1936-1939, even though the crimes were covered by a 1977 amnesty.
Garzon is best known internationally for indicting former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, and trying to put him on trial in Madrid for crimes against humanity. He also indicted Osama Bin Laden in 2003 over the Sept. 11 attacks and oversaw many rulings against Basque separatist group ETA and its political wing, Batasuna.
As a judge at Spain's National Court, Garzon took on cases using the principle of universal jurisdiction -- the idea that some crimes are so heinous they can be prosecuted anywhere. He attempted to apply this legal doctrine to abuses committed in far-flung places like Rwanda and Tibet.
Strangely, he never prosecuted the King Leopold over the Congo...
Garzon was a hero to many left-leaning human rights activists, but was viewed with suspicion by conservative sectors of Spanish society, including many senior judges who saw him as attention seeking and egotistical.
Garzon faces more legal woes over ties with a big Spanish bank that financed human rights seminars he oversaw while on sabbatical in New York in 2005 and 2006.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/13/2012
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