The Garzón trial: A NYT op-ed
Garzón on trial at the Spanish Supreme Court. Photo AFP.
The trial against Garzón “is fueled by domestic political vendettas rather than substantive legal arguments,” Dan Kaufman writes in today’s New York Times, “and it could dramatically set back international efforts to hold human-rights violators accountable for their crimes.”
The Supreme Court’s zeal to try him has little legal basis; rather, it reflects Spanish elites’ widespread unease with applying international legal principles to Spain’s conflicted history and a deep-seated animosity toward Judge Garzón that is as much personal as political.
More here. Garzón’s trial began on Tuesday and was promptly adjourned for a week, as both the defense and the prosecutor requested that the case be closed, and Garzón absolved, in light of the severe irregularities in the handling of the case by Judge Varela, and his processing of the charges brought by two small, extreme right-wing organizations (see “Revise and Resubmit”). For extensive previous ALBA coverage, see here.
