Judge Garzón’s career “irrelevant,” say prosecutors, denying case for pardon

The Supreme Court deputy prosecutor, Antonio Narváez, stated Friday that the petition for a pardon for suspended High Court Judge Baltasar Garzón “does not meet the demands of the law to be granted.”

The request for crusading magistrate Garzón’s absolution was lodged by European Judges for Democracy and Liberty (Medel) in June 2012 but mislaid between the Justice Ministry and the Supreme Court for 16 months. Garzón was suspended for 11 years in February 2012 for abusing his authority by illegally recording jailhouse conversations between suspects in the Gürtel corruption network and their lawyers.

Medel argued that Garzón’s services to Spain, including his part in “restoring peace” during the Transition should be taken into account, but the judge’s “personal and professional merits are irrelevant,” the Supreme Court prosecutor’s office said in a report. The organization also pointed to the pardon of a former judge, Javier Gómez de Liaño, who was suspended for 15 years for the same offense.

However, the prosecutor stated that the crime of abuse of judicial authority was “one of the most serious a judge can commit,” adding that the pardon request must be “dismissed out of hand.”