The ‘Right’ Kind of Justice

Baltasar Garzon, the Spanish judge made famous for probing into abuses committed under dictator Gen. Francisco Franco and for going after notorious international figures like Osama bin Laden and Chile’s Augusto Pinochet, has been suspended in preparation for a trial in which he is accused of overstepping his authority.

The court case comes after a wave of complaints from far-right groups arguing that crimes committed during the country’s civil war or decades-long dictatorship are covered under Spanish amnesty law. —JCL

Al Jazeera English:

Baltasar Garzon, one of Spain’s highest ranking judges, has been suspended from his post ahead of his trial for overreaching his authority in a probe linked to Franco-era crimes.

The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), the body that oversees the judiciary, decided unanimously to suspend Garzon on Friday, two days after the country’s supreme court cleared the way for his trial.

Garzon is accused of abuse of power for opening an investigation in 2008 into the disappearance of tens of thousands of people during Spain’s 1936 to 1939 civil war and General Francisco Franco’s subsequent dictatorship.

The case follows a complaint by far-right groups that the probe ignored an amnesty law passed in 1977, two years after Franco’s  death, for crimes committed under the general’s rule.

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Flickr / Rogério do Amaral Ribeiro

Judge Baltasar Garzon first hit world headlines in October 1998 when he ordered the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London.