Large demonstration in support for Judge Baltasar Garzón

Large demonstration in support for Judge Baltasar Garzón
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By h.b. - Apr 13, 2010 - 7:54 PM
The Partido Popular has described the protest as 'an attack against democracy'

Cándido Méndez and Ignacio Fernández Toxo - UGT and CCOO leaders at the demonstration - EFE

Thousands turned out to express support for National Court Judge Baltasar Garzón on Tuesday at an event organised by Spain’s two largest trade unions, UGT and CCOO, at the Medicine Faculty of the Complutense University in Madrid. Those who could not fit inside gathered outside the building as numbers rose.

The judge will shortly sit on the accused bench of the Supreme Court accused of perversion of the course of justice by investigating disappearances over the Franco years.

The event was opened by the rector, Carlos Berzosa, who strongly defended the event, describing the university as a forum open to the freedom of expression.

The Partido Popular General Secretary, María Dolores de Cospedal, described the demonstration in support of Judge Garzón as ‘an attack against democracy’. Speaking to Telemadrid she said ‘I would be ashamed that my union representatives acted against democracy in this so absolutely crazy way’.

Her comments got short shrift among those attending the demonstration. I.U. left wing deputy, Gaspar Llamazares, responded by saying that it was a democratic act and perfectly licit in defence of the honesty of a judge. He accused the PP General Secretary of ‘having her own notion of legality’ and added ‘She would like to veto and even prohibit everything that she is not in agreement with’.

The ex Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, Carlos Jiménez Villarejo, addressed the demonstration saying ‘I hope that we do not end up with the shame of seeing Garzón condemned for going after Fraquismo, corruption and being a just judge’.

The UGT leader, Cándido Méndez, described the opening of an investigation against Garzón in the Supreme Court as ‘historically shameful’, and instigated by the ‘sons of the dictator’ who want Garzón to become another victim of Franco.

Javier López from the CCOO union in Madrid commented that the Falange Española cannot be the protagonist of the persecution against the judge, while the IU left wing leader, Cayo Lara, called on the PP for a clear condemnation of Franco.
‘If they really are democrats’, he said, then they should be supporting us now, so that the crimes carried out under Franco can be put on the accused bench, so we can have a democracy of quality which is conciliated with its black past’. Cayo added that it was not understandable in Europe, or in any part of the world, how a magistrate who had judged crimes

Mothers and Grandmothers from the Argentine Plaza de Mayo - EFE

against humanity, such as those of Pinochet, could be put on the accused bench in his own country by the fascist Falange española, and could be banned from office.

Those attending the demonstration said that they considered the Supreme Court judges had become an ‘accomplice to torture’
The General Council for Judicial Power, the body which oversees the judiciary and which has to decide later this month whether to suspend Judge Garzón, has expressed its ‘concern and sadness’ at the criticism of the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile in the United States the Wall Street Journal has become the first foreign media to support the action being taken against Judge Garzón. In an editorial entitled ‘ A ‘Torture’ Judge’s Comeupance’ the paper says that Garzón has been indicted for judicial overreach.

Last week the New York Times came out in defence of the judge, with an editorial entitled ‘An injustice in Spain’ in which it said the real crime was the disappearances of the people during the Franco years, and not the judge’s investigation.

Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar and actress Pilar Bardem are backing a university sit-in in support of the judge. They have denounced the persecution of the judge and say the victims of Franco ‘now have no right to justice’. The protest is to be held in the Complutense University in Madrid, will last for two weeks, and contain numerous activities. It will start at 10am on Wednesday in Calle San Bernando, where, as Pilar Bardem recalled, ‘the citizens protests against the last stage of Franco began’.

Speaking for the Government, Deputy Prime Minister, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, called for respect for all judges.
The Prime Minister did the same, asking for respect for the Supreme Court, but José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero also saod that Spain is a country ‘where you can freely express ideas’. ‘Freedom should be accompanied by respect for the Supreme Court’, he said.

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