(En castellano.) If there were credit rating agencies devoted to evaluating the moral health of a country’s institutions, yesterday “Spain” would almost certainly have been downgraded to junk-bond status. Its Supreme Court opened the first of three trials against Judge Baltasar Garzón, thus initiating a three-pronged attack on judicial independence and offering...
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(En inglés.) Si existieran agencias de calificación crediticia que se dedicaran a evaluar el estado moral de las instituciones de un país, ayer “España”, sin duda, habría sido devaluado al status de “bonos basura”. Su Tribunal Supremo abrió el primer juicio de tres contra el Juez Baltasar Garzón, iniciando así su ataque tri-partito...
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"A number of countries around the world have reason to be grateful for the unstinting efforts of a Spanish judge who finds himself on trial," The Guardian editorializes today,

Judge Baltasar Garzón's 1998 attempt to extradite General Pinochet from Britain to face charges of human rights abuses relating to the 1973 coup in Read more »

Judge Garzón's first trial before Spain's Supreme Court has started. Garzón is accused of knowingly going against the law ("prevarication") when ordering allegedly illegal wiretaps while investigating a corruption ring involving the regional leadership of the conservative--and now governing--Partido Popular. The trial, which is expected to last three days, involves seven magistrates from the...
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The international media are gearing up for the upcoming two trials of Judge Baltasar Garzón. "Is it Crash and Burn Time?" Daniel Woolls asks, writing for the Associated Press:

On Tuesday, Garzon goes on trial for allegedly ordering illegal jailhouse wiretaps in a domestic corruption probe. A week later he appears in...
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Garzón's successor at Spain's National Criminal Court, Judge Pablo Ruz, has sent the prosecutor a 19-page brief reactivating the investigation of human rights abuses and war crimes at the detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, El País reports. Given the lack of judicial action on the part of the US and British authorities, Ruz...
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A group of prominent Spanish intellectuals including the poet Luis García Montero and filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar  have rallied to the support of Baltasar Garzón, the crusading Spanish magistrate who last year received the first ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism. So have Human Rights organizations worldwide. In the next two weeks, Garzón will...
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Judge Baltasar Garzón, recipient of the first ALBA/Puffin Human Rights Award earlier this year, will stand trial on January 17 and 24 for two of the three cases pending against him at Spain's Supreme Court. In both, the principal charge is prevarication, that is, knowingly overstepping judicial boundaries. The January 24 stems from...
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(English text.) Durante las últimas dos semanas del mes de octubre, han estado muy a la vista las amplias y profundas contribuciones del Juez español Baltasar Garzón a la promoción de la justicia y de los derechos humanos. Aunque los titulares y los “sound-bytes” que nos llegan de lugares tan alejados como...
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(Texto en castellano.) The astoundingly profound and widespread contributions of Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón to the promotion of justice and human rights have been everywhere on display these last two weeks of October (October 16-30, 2011).  Though not always acknowledged in the headlines and soundbytes that are streaming in these days from...
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