Garzón updates
The Supreme court has rejected Garzón’s request that Justice Varela recuse himself in the case related to Garzón’s attempt to open an investigation of crimes against humanity during the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship, and does not agree with Garzón that Varela’s request of the plaintiffs to “revise and resubmit” their briefs, as well as his detailed editing suggestions, point to a lack of impartiality. In relation to the second of three charges pending against Garzón–related to a series of panel discussions organized by Garzón and financed by the Banco Santander–judge Marchena questioned the former US director of the bank yesterday, proving unable to find evidence indicating any wrongdoing on Garzón’s or the bank’s part. Meanwhile, El País reports that on April 23 the New York Bar Association wrote a letter to the President of Spain’s Consejo Superior del Poder Judicial–the body that will have to decide whether to suspend Garzón as the case against him proceeds–urging him to “take all required actions to rescind or dismiss the pending criminal proceedings against Judge Garzón.” For more on the background, see this week’s issue of The Nation.
